The Girl in the Golden Atom by Ray Cummings
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE ATTACK ON THE PALACE
Oteo led the two men swiftly through the city towards Reoh's house.There were few pedestrians about and no one seemed particularly tonotice them. Yet somehow, the Big Business Man thought, there hung aboutthe city an ominous air of unrest. Perhaps it was the abnormalquiet--that solemn sinister look of deserted streets; or perhaps it wasan occasional face peering at them from a window, or a figure lurking ina doorway disappearing at their approach. The Big Business Man found hisheart beating fast. He suddenly felt very much alone. The realizationcame to him that he was in a strange world, surrounded by beings ofanother race, most of whom, he knew now, hated and feared him and thosewho had come with him.
Then his thoughts took another turn. He looked up at the brilliantgalaxy of stars overhead. New, unexplored worlds! Thousands, millions ofthem! In one tiny, little atom of a woman's wedding-ring! Then hethought of his friend the Banker. Perhaps the ring had not been movedfrom its place in the clubroom. Then--he looked at the sky again--thenBroadway--only thirty feet away from him this moment! He smiled a littleat this conception, and drew a long breath--awed by his thoughts.
Oteo was plucking at his sleeve and pointing. Across the street stoodReoh's house. The Doctor knocked upon its partially open front door,and, receiving no answer, they entered silently, with the dread sense ofimpending evil hanging over them. The Doctor led the way into the oldman's study. At the threshold he stopped, shocked into immobility. Uponthe floor, with the knife still in it, lay Reoh's body. The Doctor madea hasty examination, although the presence of the knife obviously madeit unnecessary.
A hurried search of the house convinced them that Aura and the VeryYoung Man were not there. The two men, confused by this double disaster,were at a loss to know what to do.
"They've got him," said the Big Business Man with conviction. "And thegirl too, probably. He must have come back just as they were killingReoh."
"There wasn't much time," the Doctor said. "He was back here in tenminutes. But they've got him--you're right--or he would have been backwith us before this."
"They'll take him and the girl to Orlog. They won't hurt them becausethey----" The Big Business Man stopped abruptly; his face went white."Good God, Frank, do you realize? They've got the drugs now!"
Targo had the drugs! The Big Business Man shuddered with fear at thethought. Their situation would be desperate, indeed, if that were so.
The Doctor reasoned it out more calmly. "I hadn't thought of that," hesaid slowly. "And it makes me think perhaps they have not captured Jack.If they had the drugs they would lose no time in using them. Theyhaven't used them yet--that's evident."
The Big Business Man was about to reply when there came a shouting fromthe street outside, and the sound of many feet rushing past the house.They hurried to the door. A mob swept by--a mob of nearly a thousandpersons. Most of them were men. Some were armed with swords; othersbrandished huge stones or lengths of beaten gold implements, perhapswith which they had been working, and which now they held as weapons.
The mob ran swiftly, with vainglorious shouts from its leaders. Itturned a corner nearby and disappeared.
From every house now people appeared, and soon the streets were full ofscurrying pedestrians. Most of them followed the direction taken by themob. The listeners in the doorway could hear now, from far away, thesound of shouts and cheering. And from all around them came the buzz andhum of busy streets. The city was thoroughly awake--alert and expectant.
The Big Business Man flung the door wide. "I'm going to follow thatcrowd. See what's going on. We can't stay here in the midst of this."
The Doctor and Oteo followed him out into the street, and they mingledwith the hastening crowd. In their excitement they walked freely amongthe people. No one appeared to notice them, for the crowd was as excitedas they, hurrying along, heedless of its immediate surroundings. As theyadvanced, the street became more congested.
Down another street they saw fighting going on--a weaponless crowdswaying and struggling aimlessly. A number of armed men charged thiscrowd--men who by their breastplates and swords the Big Business Manrecognized as the police. The crowd ceased struggling and dispersed,only to gather again in another place.
The city was in a turmoil of excitement without apparent reason, ordefinite object. Yet there was a steady tide in the direction the firstarmed mob had gone, and with that tide went the Big Business Man and histwo companions.
After a time they came to an open park, beyond which, on a prominence,with the lake behind, stood a large building that the Chemist hadalready pointed out to them as the king's palace.
Oteo led them swiftly into a side street to avoid the dense crowd aroundthe park. Making a slight detour they came back to it again--much nearerthe palace now--and approached from behind a house that fronted the openspace near the palace.
"Friend of the Master--his house!" Oteo explained as he knockedperemptorily at a side door.
They waited a moment, but no one came. Oteo pushed the door and led themwithin. The house was deserted, and following Oteo, they went to theroof. Here they could see perfectly what was going on around the palace,and in the park below them.
This park was nearly triangular in shape--a thousand feet possibly oneach side. At the base of the triangle, on a bluff with the lake behindit, stood the palace. Its main entrance, two huge golden doors, stood atthe top of a broad flight of stone steps. On these steps a fight was inprogress. A mob surged up them, repulsed at the top by a score or moreof men armed with swords, who were defending the doorway.
The square was thronged with people watching the palace steps andshouting almost continuously. The fight before the palace evidently hadbeen in progress for some time. Many dead were lying in the doorway andon the steps below it. The few defenders had so far resistedsuccessfully against tremendous odds, for the invaders, pressed upwardby those behind, could not retreat, and were being killed at the topfrom lack of space in which to fight.
"Look there," cried the Big Business Man suddenly. Coming down a crossstreet, marching in orderly array with its commander in front, was acompany of soldier police. It came to a halt almost directly beneath thewatchers on the roof-tops, and its leader brandishing his sword after amoment of hesitation, ordered his men to charge the crowd. They did notmove at the order, but stood sullenly in their places. Again he orderedthem forward, and, as they refused to obey, made a threatening movetowards them.
In sudden frenzy, those nearest leaped upon him, and in an instant helay dead upon the ground, with half a dozen swords run through his body.Then the men stood, in formation still, apathetically watching theevents that were going on around them.
Meanwhile the fight on the palace steps raged more furiously than ever.The defenders were reduced now to a mere handful.
"A moment more--they'll be in," said the Doctor breathlessly. Hardly hadhe spoken when, with a sudden, irresistible rush, the last of the guardswere swept away, and the invaders surged through the doorway into thepalace.
A great cry went up from the crowd in the park as the palace wastaken--a cry of applause mingled with awe, for they were a littlefrightened at what they were seeing.
Perhaps a hundred people crowded through the doorway into the palace;the others stood outside--on the steps and on the terracebelow--waiting. Hardly more than five minutes went by when a manappeared on the palace roof. He advanced to the parapet with severalothers standing respectfully behind him.
"Targo!" murmured Oteo.
It was Targo--Targo triumphantly standing with uplifted arms before thepeople he was to rule. When the din that was raised at his appearancehad subsided a little he spoke; one short sentence, and then he paused.There was a moment of indecision in the crowd before it broke intotumultuous cheers.
"The king--he killed," Oteo said softly, looking at his master's friendswith big, frightened eyes.
The Big Business Man stared out over the waving, cheering throng, withthe huge, dominant, t
When he could make himself heard, Targo spoke again. The Doctor and theBig Business Man were leaning over the parapet watching the scene, whensuddenly a stone flew up from the crowd beneath, and struck the railingwithin a few feet of where they were standing. They glanced down insurprise, and realized, from the faces that were upturned, that theywere recognized. A murmur ran over the crowd directly below, and thensomeone raised a shout. Four words it seemed to be, repeated over andover. Gradually the shout spread--"Death to the Giants," the BigBusiness Man knew it was--"Death to the Giants," until the whole mass ofpeople were calling it rhythmically--drowning out Targo's voicecompletely. A thousand faces now stared up at the men on the roof-topand a rain of stones began falling around them.
The Doctor clutched his friend by the arm and pulled him back from theparapet. "They know us--good God, don't you see?" he said tensely. "Comeon. We must get out of this. There'll be trouble." He started across theroof towards the opening that led down into the house.
The Big Business Man jerked himself free from the grasp that held him.
"I do see," he cried a little wildly. "I do see we've been damn fools.There'll be trouble. You're right--there will be trouble; but it won'tbe ours. I'm through--through with this miserable little atom and itsswarm of insects." He gripped the Doctor by both shoulders. "My God,Frank, can't you understand? We're men, you and I--men! Thesecreatures"--he waved his arm back towards the city--"nothing butinsects--infinitesimal--smaller than the smallest thing we ever dreamedof. And we take them seriously. Don't you understand? Seriously! God,man, that's funny, not tragic."
He fumbled at the neck of his robe, and tearing it away, brought out avial of the drugs.
"Here," he exclaimed, and offered one of the pellets.
"Not too much," warned the Doctor vehemently, "only touch it to yourtongue."
Oteo, with pleading eyes, watched them taking the drug, and the Doctorhanded him a pellet, showing him how to take it.
As they stood together upon the roof-top, clinging to one another, thecity dwindled away rapidly beneath them. By the time the drug had ceasedto act there was hardly room for them to stand on the roof, and thehouse, had it not been built solidly of stone, would have been crushedunder their weight. At first they felt a little dizzy, as though theywere hanging in mid-air, or were in a balloon, looking down at the city.Then gradually, they seemed to be of normal size again, balancingthemselves awkwardly upon a little toy-house whose top was hardly biggerthan their feet.
The park, only a step now beneath the house-top, swarmed with tinyfigures less than two inches in height. Targo still stood upon thepalace roof; they could have reached down and picked him up betweenthumb and forefinger. The whole city lay within a radius of a fewhundred feet around them.
When they had stopped increasing in size, they leaped in turn over thepalace, landing upon the broad beach of the lake. Then they beganwalking along it. There was only room for one on the sand, and the othertwo, for they walked abreast, waded ankle-deep in the water. From thelittle city below them they could hear the hum of a myriad of tinyvoices--thin, shrill and faint. Suddenly the Big Business Man laughed.There was no hysteria in his voice now--just amusement and relief.
"And we took that seriously," he said. "Funny, isn't it?"