FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   >>  
ciently near to be able to direct our rays downward into the city. These cliffs were exceedingly jagged and broken. They overhung in many places. Great rifts split them; ravines wound their way down, many of these with small, stunted trees growing in them. A descent from the summit to the floor of the valley, had we been unimpeded by the light, would in many places not have been difficult. During the next week, we succeeded--working in the prevailing gloom--in establishing a projector at the mouth of a ravine which emerged at the cliff face hardly a hundred feet from the valley bottom. This point was below the spreading light-rays which swept the cliff top above. We mounted the projector without discovery, and, flashing it on suddenly, swept the valley with its rays. An opposing ray from below picked it out almost immediately, and destroyed it, killing two of our men. The irregularities of the cliffs made several other similar attempts possible. We took advantage of them, and in each case were able to rake the valley with our fire for a moment before our projector was located and destroyed. One, which we were at great pains to protect, was maintained for a somewhat longer period. I believed we had done an immense amount of damage by these momentarily active projectors, although our enemy gave no sign. We then tried dropping rockets at the base of the lights in the valley. There were few points at which they could be reached without striking the rays first. But we persisted, sending up a hundred or more. Most were ineffective; a few found their mark, as we could tell by a sudden "hole" in the barrage, which, however, was invariably repaired before we could make it larger. These activities lasted a week or more. It began, to look as though we had entered upon a lengthy siege. I wondered how long the city's food supply would last if we settled down to starve it out. The thought came to me then that Tao might be almost ready for his second expedition to the earth. Was he indeed merely standing us off in this way so that some day he might depart in his vehicle before our very eyes? Tao began to adopt our tactics. Without warning one day a projector from a towering eminence near the city flashed down at the river encampment. That we were not entirely destroyed was due to the extreme watchfulness of our guards, who located it immediately with their rays. As it was, we lost nearly a hundred men in the single moment
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   >>  



Top keywords:
valley
 

projector

 

destroyed

 
hundred
 
moment
 
immediately
 

located

 

cliffs

 

places

 

lengthy


lasted
 
entered
 

supply

 

settled

 

wondered

 

activities

 

repaired

 

sending

 

jagged

 

exceedingly


persisted
 

broken

 

reached

 
striking
 

ineffective

 
invariably
 
starve
 

barrage

 

sudden

 

larger


downward

 

eminence

 
flashed
 
encampment
 

towering

 
tactics
 

Without

 

warning

 

single

 

guards


extreme

 

watchfulness

 
expedition
 

direct

 
ciently
 
depart
 

vehicle

 

standing

 
thought
 

lights