16
Cunningham could not understand the speech of Vladimir, nor the replies that Stephan made. Only, once Maria clung to his arm in an access of hope.
“He has not spoken!” she whispered. “He is threatening now to tell them who we are——”
Then Vladimir was shouting promises, to judge by his tone. A moment later his voice was stern.
Maria sobbed suddenly. A growl went up from the Strangers, running all about among the huddled figures.
Far away over the hills a low-toned buzzing set up. It strengthened and grew louder. A black dot hung between earth and sky. It grew larger. A second black dot appeared; a third. Wings could be seen upon the first of the airplanes. More and more appeared until there were six in all, flying in formation and winging their way steadily toward the hills.
They darted back and forth, searching. Cunningham shouted joyously.
“There they are!” he yelled. “Tell Vladimir to go to hell, Stephan! We’ve got help with us now!”
Vladimir had heard the sound of the engines and stared upward. Then foam appeared upon his lips and he shrieked with rage.
“There will be soldiers upon those things?” asked Stephan quietly. The Strangers were gazing up at the swooping aircraft that quartered the hills like monster hawks, in quest of the Strangers and their enemies.
“Surely,” Cunningham told him joyously. “They’ll carry five men apiece, with the pilots.”
Stephan rose and stepped forward, where he shouted in a stentorian voice to Vladimir. Maria gasped in terror and clung close to Cunningham.
“He is—he is going to do as Vladimir says!” she cried. “Do not let him do it! Oh, do not——”
Stephan turned and spoke in a low tone in the unknown tongue of the Strangers. And where there had been rebellion among the defiant folk on the peak before he spoke, afterward there were grim smiles. Men’s hands loosened the knives in their belts.
Stephan shouted again in apparent panic, pointing up to the flying things that circled suddenly above them. And Vladimir’s face contorted in a grin of direst cruelty. He called over his shoulder and rode forward until he was just out of throwing-knife range. Then he shouted once more.
At Stephan’s low-toned order a cloud of knives went licking through the air and fell at his horse’s feet. And Vladimir grinned savagely and rode up, quite up, among the Strange People.
They cowered as he drew close to them. They crawled upon the ground as he stared savagely about him. They shook in seeming terror as he snarled a phrase or two at them. Cunningham gripped his revolver, his eyes blazing amid all his bewilderment. He had never seen such beastly cruelty upon the face of any living man. Maria clung close to him, shaking in unearthly terror.
Vladimir rode his horse toward a cowering group. They rolled away, gasping in apparent horror, as the horse was upon them. Not one lifted a finger to defend himself. They seemed stricken with utter, craven terror. They crawled abjectly upon the ground before him.
Vladimir came upon the bullet-headed servant he had sent to kill Cunningham. The man fawned up at his master, bound hand and foot as he was. Vladimir gazed at him sardonically and spoke in a purring tone. Then he deliberately shot the man dead.
The Strange People cringed. Then Vladimir saw Cunningham. He rode over and stared down with cold, beastly eyes.
“Ah, my friend,” he purred. “You know the secret of my folk, you say. Perhaps you lie, but it does not matter. You saw the end of my servant, did you not? That was for failing to kill you as I ordered. Do you remember that after that you struck me?”
Cunningham’s fingers itched on trigger.
“I do,” he said curtly. “You’d better run away, Vladimir. My friend Gray has some unbribed officers in those planes that are going to land in a minute or so.”
Vladimir laughed.
“What difference?” he asked amusedly. “My people are cowed, now. They will swear to anything I choose to tell them. All that I need to do is hand over some of them to be hanged. One or two will go for killing my servant. They will confess to whatever I say. And I will take the others away with me.”
“You’re sure?” asked Cunningham grimly. “Quite sure?”
“But certainly,” Vladimir laughed again. “They are afraid I will tell who they are. But you—— Time is short.” He glanced at Stephan and his voice rasped. “Take away his weapons!”
Stephan approached Cunningham, cowering from the menace of Vladimir’s eyes. He seemed to be in the ultimate of terror, but as he drew near to Cunningham, and Vladimir could not see his face, he smiled grimly. There was no terror on his face then. He made a reassuring gesture.
“Take it!” rasped Vladimir harshly. “Disarm him!”
Stephan’s lips moved but Cunningham could not quite understand what he wished to convey. But he had two revolvers and he thrust one into Stephan’s hand and drew and jerked the other behind him while Stephan’s body covered the movement.
“Ah,” purred Vladimir as Stephan drew back and handed over the weapon. “You see it is necessary to kill you, Cunningham. My folk will take the blame for it. I shall probably let Stephan hang for your murder. They need a lesson, you understand. But I will be merciful. A bullet through the heart——”
He raised Cunningham’s own revolver, but he never fired it. As his arm lifted, Cunningham’s own weapon came around. But Cunningham did not fire either. There was a panted ejaculation and a dozen Strangers seemed to spring from the earth. With the savagery and directness of so many panthers they leaped upon Vladimir. He was hidden from view in a mass of savagely stabbing figures who clung to him in a grim silence. Vladimir screamed just once, and his revolver went off with a deafening explosion. One of the Strangers rolled to the ground, coughing, while he grinned in spite of his agony.
And then Vladimir fell with a crash to the ground and lay still.
There was a shout from the Strangers. Men yelled and the younger ones darted out to where their knives had been tossed before Vladimir. They came racing back with armfuls of the shining blades. They distributed them swiftly, grinning as they did so.
And in less than two minutes from the time Vladimir had ridden up to the peak where the Strangers lay barricaded, he had died and the Strangers were again lying in wait for the attack that they were sure would result in their annihilation.
But the great airplanes came coasting down heavily. Their motors shut off one by one and they zoomed to lose speed and pancaked with sudden awkwardness to the earth. This was no ideal landing-place. Three of them alighted safely. One was tilted sidewise by a sudden gust of wing and crumpled up a wing against a tree. Two others crashed their landing-gear on boulders on the rocky hillside.
Then Gray leaped out of the first to land, shouting frantically to the besiegers to fire no more. Men jumped from the others and spread themselves about the peak. They were alert grim figures with rifles which they handled with familiar ease. And Gray came running up to the embattled Strangers, his hands high above his head, and shouting that he was a friend.