<h2 id="c16"><i>16</i> <br/><span class="small">Cabot tells the world</span></h2>
<p>There on the same couch on which I had
often caressed the Princess, I held in my
arms her betrayer, the lovely Bthuh. So soon
does love forget.</p>
<p>So soon love does <i>not</i> forget! Casting aside the seductive
betrayer of my princess, I sprang to my feet, resolving never to
give up hope until I actually saw Lilla’s dead body, and even
then to remain true to her in death. Bthuh’s last chance had
come and gone. She had played her last card and lost.</p>
<p>Although it was now night, I at once called my aide, and summoned
a squad out of my own hundred, which had been retained
as the king’s bodyguard. Then, requisitioning a fleet of
kerkools, we set out for the Imperial City, leaving Poblath with
his former love, Bthuh.</p>
<p>“Tame her if you can, and good luck to you,” was my parting
admonition.</p>
<p>The trip was made in record time. By the light of our flash
lamps we found that the ruins were guarded by several hundred
ant-men; so we sent for reenforcements to be furnished in the
morning, and then we bivouacked for the night, taking turns
keeping awake and sniping at the enemy whenever they showed
a light or came within the beams of ours.</p>
<p>Early in the morning, a company of Cupians reported to me,
and we at once began the assault of the ruins, carrying our
objective with but little difficulty.</p>
<p>Then came the individual fighting in the corridors, and in
this the ant-men were not at so great a disadvantage. They
ambushed our soldiers. They pushed rocks on them from above.
And, all in all, they made away with nearly half our force, before
the remaining handful of defenders broke and fled from
the city.</p>
<p>Our survivors were put to work exploring. The mangled body
of Queen Formis was hailed with joy, but no signs were discovered
of either Yuri or Lilla, although occasionally we would
come upon an enemy straggler and kill him.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_120">120</div>
<p>Finally on rounding a turn, whom should I meet face to face
but the ant-man who had let me go after I had rescued him
from the woofus. I recognized him at once.</p>
<p>“Yahoo! Number 356-1-400,” I hailed him, “a life for a
life.”</p>
<p>“Nay,” he replied, “for you owe me nothing on that score.
But if you will spare me, I will repay you well.”</p>
<p>“Your life is already yours,” I said.</p>
<p>“Then,” said he, “I will lead you to the princess.”</p>
<p>I could have embraced the uncouth creature for joy. But,
suspecting a trap, I gathered nearly a squad of my soldiers
before following the ant-man. He led us into the subterranean
depths of the city. Several times we had to remove fallen fragments
which barred our way, and once had to wait until explosives
could be obtained to blast a passage. But at last we
came within sight of an undamaged dungeon, where Lilla lay
chained, alive and well.</p>
<p>Yet even as we hailed her through a crack in the debris, we
saw two ant-men enter the dungeon through another passage,
unchain the princess, and carry her away.</p>
<p>Quick as a flash I remembered my revolver, and opened fire
through the crack, blasting one of her abductors. But as I
drew a bead on the other, my weapon was knocked from my
hand. Turning angrily. I beheld our guide standing over me.</p>
<p>“I fulfilled my bargain,” he said, “when I showed you the
princess. Now I owe you no more. Those Formians are my
fellow countrymen, and I have saved one of them, at least, from
the horrible death.”</p>
<p>“And lost me my princess,” I shouted angrily.</p>
<p>We were now surrounded by my squad with drawn rifles,
but they did not dare fire, for fear of hitting me. I was at the
mercy of our guide. He had too much respect for the dum-dum
bullets, however, and was easily hauled off of me and placed
under arrest.</p>
<p>My men then proceeded to hack their way into the dungeon,
and we at once followed the trail of the princess. This was not
easy, for the city was a total wreck. A hundred ways presented
themselves, through which her captor might have crawled. So
we withdrew and threw a cordon around the entire city, dispatching
a few searching parties again into the interior. This
was made possible by additional reenforcements from headquarters.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_121">121</div>
<p>As luck would have it, the ant-man finally made his appearance,
with Lilla held tightly in his jaws, at the very point in the
line of sentries where I happened to be. Instantly a dozen rifles
covered him.</p>
<p>But he radiated the peremptory command: “Stop! Put down
your rifles.”</p>
<p>“Put them down!” I ordered.</p>
<p>“Now,” he continued, “if a rifle is raised again, I bite, and
the princess dies. She lives only on condition that I am given
safe passage, <i>with her as my prisoner</i>. Once within our lines
she will be treated well, for she will prove a valuable hostage
to support the demands of Formis for a return to power.”</p>
<p>“Formis is dead,” I objected.</p>
<p>“One Formis is dead,” he replied. “But there are always
maggots which we can fatten to make a new queen.”</p>
<p>At this point Lilla interjected faintly: “Bite, oh Formian,
for I would die, rather than betray my country.”</p>
<p>But I said: “You may proceed. Not a rifle will be raised
against you, for the princess must be saved.”</p>
<p>Nothing however had been said about revolvers, and evidently
the ant-man was unacquainted with that weapon. As he
passed through our lines, keeping a careful watch on the rifles
of our sentries, I fired my revolver from the hip and the ant
dropped dead. A moment later Lilla was clasped safely in my
arms.</p>
<p>Tenderly we greeted each other. She was parched and hungry,
and our first task was to give her food and drink, which were
easily found among the ruins.</p>
<p>Then came explanations. She had awakened to find herself
in the dungeon about noon of the day before. Yuri had informed
her that the Cupian attack had been met and stopped, and that
airplanes were about to destroy Kuana. Then he had been hurriedly
called away, and she had seen no one since. She could
hardly believe us when we told her that the attack had been
a success, that Queen Formis was dead, and that the power of
Formia was broken forever.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_122">122</div>
<p>When she had rested, I at once sent her home under guard in
a kerkool, and myself proceeded to headquarters to learn how
the war was progressing. Much as I longed to accompany her,
my first duty was to my adopted country.</p>
<p>To Number 356-1-400, before leaving, I gratefully offered
an honorable freedom in Cupia, but he scornfully replied that
he would rather die fighting for his own country. I respected
his attitude, and so gave him a safe-conduct through our lines
to rejoin his own troops. Later in the war his number was
reported to me as being among the casualties.</p>
<p>At headquarters I found Hah Babbuh in fine spirits. The
power of Formia was broken indeed!</p>
<p>Wautoosa had fallen into our hands and, with it, a number
of planes, which thus were added to our steadily growing air-force.
Kerkools were patrolling all the roads, shooting ant-men
at sight.</p>
<p>Hah was particularly jubilant over what had happened at
Mooni. Early on Peace Day, the Cupian students had somehow
received word of what was afoot. Joining with the slaves, they
had slightly outnumbered the ant-men there present and had
captured the University after a fierce struggle, thus preventing
the ant-men from removing or destroying the priceless gems
of knowledge stored there. When our vanguard arrived, our
students were already in control.</p>
<p>In the days that followed, our advance progressed. City after
city fell into our hands, in sufficient numbers and containing
sufficient supplies, so that we did not have to give any thought
to the quartering or feeding of our men. All that was necessary
was a steady stream of ammunition proceeding from Kuana to
our outposts.</p>
<p>I had given strict orders that Doggo and Yuri were to be
taken alive, the former because I wished to spare him as a
friend, the latter because I looked forward with extreme pleasure
to seeing him executed for treason. But neither was captured.
The numbers of all dead ant-men were taken and turned in,
but Doggo’s number was not among them. And to this day I
do not know what became of him or of Yuri.</p>
<p>It was my ambition to exterminate the entire race of ant-men
from the face of Poros, with the single exception of my friend
Doggo. But this wish was not to be gratified. For, as the Formians
retreated southward, our lines of communication became
more and more extended, and our troops more and more undisciplined.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_123">123</div>
<p>Gradually the Formians obtained rifles, particularly from the
two cities which they had bombed. Then they made a stand and
sent out snipers, and this netted them more rifles.</p>
<p>Our people began to grumble. The widows and orphans of
the slain did not appreciate the honor which had been thrust
upon them. The sport-loving Cupians in the field chafed under
military restraint, and demanded to be returned home to their
games. And a considerable number of the populace were even
heard to say that two years slavery to Formia was far better
than a life-long slavery in the army of a military dictator—meaning
the four or five weeks since the war had started.</p>
<p>So, reluctantly, King Kew concluded a new peace with what
was left of Formia. A new pale was set up far to the south of the
old. Formia had to bear the entire cost of the war. Ant-men
were forbidden to carry arms or to enter Cupia, and all their
airships were confiscated. The Kings of Cupia reserved a veto
power over Formian laws forever. But King Kew wisely decided
not to demoralize Cupia by the introduction of Formian
slaves.</p>
<p>Our University set up a branch at Mooni, in order that the
glamour of that name might not be lost. Our bravest soldiers
and our war widows, were rewarded by grants of land and of
city residences in the captured territory, which almost completely
alleviated the popular discontent.</p>
<p>Not until the treaty was concluded did I return from the
field. The papers were signed in the same hall at Mooni which
had witnessed the degradation of Cupia five hundred years
ago; for “defeat is bitterest at the scene of a former victory,”
as Poblath remarked. And on the occasion of the present treaty,
Kew, surrounded by his generals and in the presence of the
signatories, was crowned King of all Poros. This idea, by the
way, was due to Poblath, the philosopher, and it won him a
barsarkarship, which came in very handy.</p>
<p>There was much decorating with medals and handing out of
promotions. Needless to state, the King made me a sarkar; and
the Assembly, not to be outdone, voted to make me a winko,
or field marshal, for life!</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_124">124</div>
<p>Now marriage was possible between Lilla and me. And also
between Bthuh and Poblath, for Bthuh had proven to be a good
sport and had finally accepted him; and as Lilla had prophesied,
Bthuh settled down and became a most quiet and domestic wife.</p>
<p>The proudest and happiest moment of my entire life was
when, upon the joining-stand of Kuana in the presence of the
assembled multitude, King Kew pronounced the words which
made Lilla my wife.</p>
<p>We spent our honeymoon camping out on a most beautiful
rocky island in the middle of Lake Luno, which nestled in the
hills and surrounded by deep woods, about a thousand stads to
the northward of Kuana. I had discovered the place by accident,
while on an airplane trip to an isolated mountain community
immediately after the war, for the purpose of conferring decorations
on the first company which had stood its ground against
the onslaught of the ant-men.</p>
<p>The walls of the island rise sheer some nine parastads from the
water’s edge, save where in one spot a sloping lawn runs through
a cleft in the rocks down to a sandy beach. The interior of the
island slopes gently from the cliffs down from all sides to a
little pond in the center, and is about equally divided between
lawn and stately grove. Here Lilla and I plan to build.</p>
<p>Here we spent many golden days, swimming and fishing and
climbing, but mostly just looking into each other’s eyes.</p>
<p>At our first dip in the water, I was horribly embarrassed.
In the first place, I had to shed my headset, which always puts
me at a disadvantage. And, in the second place, my wings
came unstuck and fell off, and my matted hair exposed my
ears, so that I stood before her an earth-man, with all my horrible
earthly deformities. Yet, still she loved me.</p>
<p>Our honeymoon was idyllic and ideal. But all good things
must end, and we finally had to return to the city to take up
my duties, for added to my honors was a place in the Royal
Cabinet as Minister of Play, the former incumbent having died
during my absence.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_125">125</div>
<p>I have various projects in hand for my adopted country.
Already a network of radio stations is going up throughout the
land. A systematic extermination of the whistling bee is under
way by means of anti-aircraft artillery. Various earth devices are
being tested out in our laboratories as fast as I can recall them
to memory. And I have resumed, but with great precautions,
my experiments on the wireless transmission of matter, in which
work Toron is assisting.</p>
<p>Lilla and I occupy her old suite in the palace, and entertain
constantly; among our most frequent guests are my old friend
Poblath and his completely tamed wife.</p>
<p>But often I wonder what has become of Doggo and Yuri. In
spite of present prosperity, Cupia is not safe, if the renegade
prince still lives on the planet. But I hope that Doggo survives,
and that we shall meet again.</p>
<p>Fate now seems to be through with its hard knocks. But
happy as I am, I occasionally wonder what is going on in dear
old Boston, whether America’s World War allies ever repaid
the billions which they borrowed, whether our country joined
the League of Nations in time to save the world from a second
World War, etc., etc. And I have a yearning to write home.</p>
<p>Of course, the obvious step for me was to attempt communication
by radio, so I built a particularly powerful sending set
with long wave length. But the lack of any reply convinced me
that my signals were not being received on earth.</p>
<p>So recently I got together my old committee of five: Hah
Babbuh, Buh Tedn, Ja Babbuh, Toron and myself; and together
we designed a super gun and a streamline projectile, and computed
the necessary powder-charge and principles of aiming, so
that we could shoot the projectile to the earth.</p>
<p>Then I prepared this manuscript in quadruplicate, with three
of which copies I shall try to reach the world. For this purpose,
each copy will be placed in a gold cylinder and be swathed in
the fur of the fire-worm, that peculiar creature which dares to
live almost at the edge of the boiling seas, because its matted
fur is the most perfect insulator against heat known on Poros.</p>
<p>The swathed cylinder will then be packed into the interior
of the projectile, and a covering put on, especially calculated to
resist the devouring heat of passage through the atmosphere of
the two planets. The projectile will be weighed, its center of
gravity will be determined, and its moments of inertia will be
tested, the firing data being corrected accordingly. It will be
placed in the gun.</p>
<p>Then, at exactly the appointed time, the gun will be discharged,
and may God speed my message on its way to you, my
earth-brethren.
<span class="center"><span class="sc">The End</span></span>
<span class="jr"><i>Myles S. Cabot.</i></span></p>
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