The Winged Men of Orcon | Page 6

held
the cable to our stern.
"Help me!" I yelled at the others.
Koto was the first to close in. Struggling, slipping, hampered rather
than helped by our great strength, we clawed our way aft. A combined
lurch of ship and blast of wind threw Captain Crane down, but she
staggered up.
We dropped the gun with a thump at a spot where the bulging curve of
the stern swelled directly under the muzzle. I grabbed at the trigger just
as a new surge of movement brought the flier perilously close to a great,
inrushing wall of water which was not water. Koto's face was drawn,
and Virginia Crane was staring in horrified fascination at the gun.
* * * * *
Again came the faint trembling of the beautifully constructed
mechanism. The green ray leaped out across the blinding whiteness of
our light rays. I jammed the muzzle down until the whole force of the

atomic stream was spouting against the magnetic plate which held the
cable to our stern.
"Look, Doctor! Look!" Captain Crane cried.
But I was already looking.
For an instant a flash of blue light played about our ship. There was a
single sharp, crackling sound; and, ringing in the night, an echoing,
high-pitched twang.
Koto let out a shout. I took my hands away from the gun.
Backward the twanging cable snapped, demolishing with one touch a
score of the clustering Orconites. Into the waves it snapped, and our
ship, ceasing to move, came to rest upon the glittering pebbles of the
beach.
I heaved a deep sigh.
"What came to me a moment ago," I said breathlessly to the others,
"was the idea that when atomic structures are so juggled that they are
no longer affected by the gun, all the forces of magnetism, which
usually are immune to the atomic stream, are rendered liable to
disruption by it. We could not destroy Leider's cable, but we could play
the deuce with its magnetic grip on us."
Koto was looking at me wide-eyed, and I saw that his interest was as
keen as my own. Even Virginia Crane, scientist though she was not,
was interested.
We were in no position, however, to sit still and think. The waves
astern and the howling wind were subsiding noticeably, but the
inhabitants of Orcon all about us were still creating a great hubbub. Our
next obvious move, regardless of what they might do, was to get hold
of one of them and make him talk.
* * * * *

After a gesture to Koto and Captain Crane to stay where they were, I
ran to a spot on the deck where I had seen a permanent ladder fixed to
the side of the ship. Three jumps took me down to the beach, and three
more took me into the very midst of the mob.
The confusion brought about by the destruction of the score or so of
Orconites by the flying cable, and by our unexpected salvation, all
worked for me. And another thing worked for me, too.
These people had great intelligence, but they seemed like sheep when it
came to a question of physical, hand to hand encounter. Of rough and
tumble fighting with fists they knew nothing--as indeed not many
people do in this century, even on Earth. The result of it all was that
they shrank back when I charged into them, and not a blow was struck,
even when I caught up the nearest figure in my path, swung it over my
shoulder, and tore back to the ladder. In two shakes I was standing on
the deck again, my prisoner all safe.
"What a creature!" Virginia Crane cried as I presented her and Koto
with my struggling but helpless prize.
That was just what I had thought after my first glimpse of the whole
brood of them. Close inspection showed, as I had supposed, that the
Orconite was a man, and yet not a man. The body, the limbs, the
enormous head, the features of the orange-colored face were human;
and the chap began to spout excited sounds which were certainly the
words of intelligent speech. But also he was winged, and from the
orange forehead waved those curious, frilled feelers!
* * * * *
He was clad in a single loose garment of woven cloth which permitted
free action for both limbs and wings. A small, flat black box with a
mouthpiece into which he could speak, was strapped to his chest in
such a position that it was almost concealed by the folds of his blouse.
We were to find out presently the purpose of this instrument, but I did
not examine it carefully then. As the creature glared balefully at us
from his intelligent dark eyes, I