OLD FRIENDS
“Doggo!” he cried. “Doggo! They told me you were dead!”
But of all this was on the radio speech of the prisoner. Vairking soldiers their Myles Cabot and what they was sure at the of the black beast. Cabot recoiled.
“Jud,” he called out, “order off your henchmen! I am not crazy, do I death. This is the only one of the Formians I can control. He will prove a valuable for us, if I can him to the which your men have already upon him.”
“I do not you,” Jud replied, “for how can men with beasts, with such as this, the like of which man ne’er set on before?”
“Remember that I am a magician,” Myles returned testily. Then that Jud was still obdurate, he the guards. “You know me for a magician?”
“Yes,” they admitted.
“And you know the magic on which I am now engaged, and to which all of my relate?”
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“Yes,” one replied. “You to call the of heaven, and them to transport your across the seas.”
“Rightly spoken!” the Radio Man asserted. “Therefore, if you do not aside, I shall call those for another purpose, namely, to blast you. Stand aside!”
One of the spoke to another, “Why should we our to save his? Let the save himself!”
So they aside. Myles up to the cage, and he and Doggo each the other’s through the bars.
Jud the Excuse-Maker explained, “I that you were speaking the truth, but I to learn what method you would use to the soldiers. You did nobly.”
“Bunk!” the earth-man ejaculated, well that the Vairking would not him.
“What means that word?” Jud inquired, much interested.
“That,” Myles replied, grinning, “is a term often on my own planet, the earth, to the of our great leaders.”
Jud, complimented, let it go at that. Myles now ordered paper and a pencil, and a with his friend.
“They told me you were dead,” he wrote. “Or I would have left the city of Yuriana or your cause.”
“My died with my daughter, the queen,” Doggo replied. “I alone survive. I by plane, and have been around the country since, until my gave out. Then these Cupians me. They got me with a so that I not back.
“Also, I was from my at the time, or it would have gone hard with them for the ship is well with bombs, and cartridges, and one rifle. Now tell me of yourself. How do you with these Cupians?”
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“They are not Cupians.” Myles wrote. “They are Vairkings, a much like myself, who send with their mouths and with their ears, of using their for both, as the Cupians and you Formians do. Do you the old of Cupia, that like me the seas? Well, it to have been true, though how any one have or it, is a to me.”
“You have not yet told me how you stand,” the ant-man him.
“They me as a great magician,” Myles answered, “and I have promised to them a radio set, and to lead them to victory over the Formians.”
“Just as you did for the Cupians,” Doggo mused. “But you will have a here, for these appear to know no metals, any of the save woodcarving.”
They each other’s again. Then, any one interfere, Myles Cabot the door of the cage, and out walked Doggo, a free once more.
The soldiery, and Jud with them, to the four of the room.
“Come over here, Jud,” Myles invited, “and meet my friend—that is, unless you are afraid.”
“Oh, no, I do not him,” Jud the Excuse-Maker replied, “but I do not it with the of my position to be with a wild beast.”
It was typical. Myles laughed. Then he the home with him to his quarters.
Quivven was amazed, but not at all frightened, at the great black creature; and when an had been on paper, she and Doggo a for each other.
As soon as the Formian had been and to a room in the ménage—some over the menagerie, by the way—his and took him on a of of their laboratory.
With the true scientific so of the but which once Cupia, Doggo at once into the of the almost super-Porovian which Myles had undertaken; and it soon that the new would prove to be an accession. His scientific would with that of the earth-man, and would it at every point.
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Almost at the very start he a of the problems which had been Myles.
Cabot’s of the of had been that it a furnace, two towers, and a about two hundred long of lead, and into which had to be injected. His of was that it among other ingredients. So how was he to make either without having the other? And furthermore, where was he to lead to a two-hundred-foot tunnel?
Doggo solved these problems very nicely—by them.
“What do you need add for?” he wrote.
“Merely to use in making acid,” the earth-man in reply.
“And that?”
“To use in making for my batteries.”
“Do you need for anything the of sulphuric?”
“No.”
“Then,” Doggo suggested, “let us make our directly from its elements. We shall a series of about twenty cast-iron retorts, as soon as you have your iron. These we shall with salt, pressed into and dried. We shall these with fires, and through them we shall pass then, air, and the of your ore-roasting.
“After about fifteen days we shall daily cut out the retort, out the which has in it, it, and place it at the end of the series. The liquid, which at the end of the series, will be acid. By the of animal-refuse through it we shall it into solution.”
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Accordingly, the they started their operations, the better.
By this time chalcopyrite, quartz, and were present at Vairkingi in large quantities. The was roasted, and then was into the with the and charcoal; the air-bellows were started, fire was through the slaghole, and soon a of notice on all Vairkingi that the devil-furnace of the great was in full blast. By this time it was night, but no one of stopping.
Of course, there were complications. The soldiers the at the of green-tinged flame, but Doggo into the and all of the with his legs. Finally the warriors, on that Myles and Quivven had the of fire, returned to their posts, and were soon of their own and of how their would them on the when they should relate their experiences.
Along toward Cabot his of into a and it into the converter. It was an sight. The wooden-walled inclosure, by the of a of fire, which the white skin of the earth-man into that of a Oriental, Quivven with green-gold, and off the of Doggo as off the of a bloodstone. In the of the background, the at their pumps.
Then there came a change. The died down, the ceased, oil were lit, and the gave place to a but healthy light, although over all the of expectancy.
The was up, a hand-hole-cover removed, and out a liquid, all the with a ruddiness.
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Again the red glare, as the was into the barrel-shaped converter. Then the were started again, and the blast from the replaced that of the with its light. Two hours later the was tipped, and pure copper was out into the ladle. Once more the ruddiness.
Quickly the were filled, the red light was gone, the spell was broken, was resumed. The of Vairkingi was an fact.
Day came, and with it loud on the gate. Cabot answered it, and the who was outside. The gate open with a bang, almost Myles into a flower bed, and in a Vairking with and heavily.
“You beast!” he cried, at the earth-man as he spoke.
But in his and anger he too hard and too far; so that Cabot, although unarmed, was able to step under his and him by the he recovered. Quick as the boy’s arm was up his back, and he was “in chancery”, to use the term.
Slowly, grimly, Cabot the hand the shoulder-blades of his opponent, until with a the the sword, and it to the ground.
Smiling, Cabot and it up, and the against the wall.
“Now,” said the earth-man, “explain yourself.”
The boy Myles like a panther.
“It’s Quivven,” he snarled. “You have my Quivven.”
“Nonsense!” Myles exclaimed. “What do you mean?”
“I am Tipi the Steadfast,” the replied. “Long have I loved the Golden Flame, and she me, until you came to this city. When you I was away on a expedition, to at the of my one. Last night I returned to her at your laboratory. One or the other, you or I, must die.”
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“You are absurd!”
“In my country,” Tipi returned, looking the earth-man in the eye, “no common soldier is permitted to manners to a gentleman. I repeat that Quivven—”
But at this point, Myles the Vairking over one ear, him upon the walk; and, as he to his feet, him another which sent him into the street. Then Myles the gate, and toward the house.
In the Quivven, with laughter. Myles was embarrassed. He hadn’t that his had been observed. He to off, and was that his had appeared very melodramatic.
“Isn’t Tipi silly?” she asked.
“But he may make trouble with your father,” Myles said, with a frown.
“Oh, I’m not of father.”
“But he will put an end to my experiments.”
So Quivven home to with her father Tipi there to up possible trouble. She returned later in the day to her work. While she was gone, Cabot with Doggo.
“Why are you this radio set?” the ant-man wrote. “I did not ask you in the presence of the lady, for I that you did not wish her to know your plans.”
“Doggo, you intuition,” Myles in reply. “It is true that I do not wish any of the Vairkings to know. My idea is to with Cupia, learn how Lilla is along, and my supporters there to out until in some way I can secure a Formian and return across the seas.”
“Then your work,” Doggo wrote, “for my plane, in perfect condition, in a not a full day’s from this city. All that we need is for the trophil-engines.”
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