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these things in the old U. S. I'd hate like anything to think we last
Americans were shoved out of our country by a lot of chickens."
Murray glanced around him. In every direction the long lines of the convoy
stretched out, big liners loaded to the funnels with men, guns, tanks and
ammunition. On the fringes of the troopships the sleek grey sides of the
cruisers and destroyers that protected them were visible. Overhead there
soared an armada of fast planes no mere observation machines or peaceful
explorers like the South Africans but fierce deadly fighting planes,
rocket-powered, which could step along at ten miles a minute and climb, dive
and maneuver better than a dodo.
He nodded. "You said something, sister. Won't it be great to take a whack at
them under the Stars and Stripes. I'm glad they let us do it even if there are
only fourteen of us."
In the four months since the conference with the Australian Scientific
Committee it had been amply demonstrated to the three remaining governments of
the world that there was not room for both man and dodos on the same planet.
A carefully-worked out campaign had evidently been set in operation by
whatever central intelligence led the four-winged birds with the object of
wiping human life from the earth. The bombing of Canberra was merely the first
blow.
While Australia was arming and organizing to meet the menace the second blow
fell on Surabaya, the great metropolis of Java, which was wiped out in a
single night. At this evidence of the hostile intentions of the dodos, radio
apparatus began to tap in Australia, in the Dutch colonies and in South
Africa. Old guns forgotten since the last great war, were wheeled out.
Factories began to turn out fighting planes and young men drilled in the
parks.
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When, late in November, a flock of twenty-five dodos was observed over north
Australia, headed for Sydney, the forces of the defense were on their guard.
Long before the birds reached the town they were met by a desperate battle
over the desert, claw and beak and bomb against machine-gun. They were shot
down to the last bird. With that the attacks had suddenly ceased and the
federated governments, convinced that it was but the calm before a greater
storm, had gathered their strength for a trial of arms.
It was realized that whatever lay behind this attempt to conquer all that was
left of the old earth must, be in some way due to the coming of the great
comet and must center somewhere in America, where the, comet had struck. So
for the first time the race of man began to learn what international
cooperation meant.
Delegates from the three surviving governments met in conference at Perth with
Ben Ruby accorded a place as the representative of the United States. The
decision of the conference was to mobilize every man and weapon to attack the
birds in America and exterminate them there if possible. If unable to do this,
then to keep them so occupied at home that they would be unable to deliver any
counter-attack.
There was plenty of shipping to carry an army far larger than that the
federated governments could mobilize. The main weakness of the expedition lay
in the lack of naval protection, for the great navies of the world had
perished when the northern hemisphere passed under the influence of the comet.
It was sought to make up for this deficiency by a vast cloud of airplanes,
flying from the decks of many merchant ships converted into carriers, though
some of the new rocket-planes were powerful enough to cruise around the world
under their own power.
And so, on this March morning in 1957 the whole vast armada was crossing the
Atlantic toward the
United States. In view of the fact that the headquarters of the dodos seemed
to be somewhere in the
Catskills it had been decided to land in New Jersey, form a base there and
work northward.
In the preliminary training for the coming conflict the metal Americans had
played an important part.
Their construction made them impossible as aviators, which they would have
preferred. But quite early it was discovered that they made ideal operators
for tanks. The oil fumes and the lack of air did not in the least affect
beings to whom breathing had become unimportant and the oil was actually a
benefit.
As a result the little American army had been composed of fourteen tanks of
special type, fitted at the direction of the military experts with all the
latest and best in scientific devices. They were given extra-heavy armor,
fitted in two thicknesses, with a chamber between as protection against the
light-bombs, and each tank, built to be handled by a single operator, was
provided with one heavy gun, so arranged that it could be used against aerial
attack.
A STIR of motion was visible at the head of the convoy. A destroyer dashed
past the
Paranwtta, smoke pouring from her funnels, white bow-wave rising high at her
bridge as she put on full speed. From the airplane carrier just behind them in
the line, one, two, three flights of fighters swung off, circled a moment to
gain altitude, then whirled off to the north and west.
"What is it?" asked Gloria.
A sailor touched his cap. "Sighted a dodo, I believe, miss," he said.
"Oh boy!" said Gloria. "Here we go. What would you give to be in one of those
planes?"
They craned their necks eagerly but nothing was visible except a few flecks in
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the sky that might be
dodos or might equally well be airplanes. Faint and faraway, a rattle of
machine-guns drifted down.
There was a flash of intense light like the reflection in a far-distant mirror
and the machine-guns ceased. A
few moments later the airplanes came winging back to their mother ship. A
sailor on her deck began to swing his arms in the curious semaphore language
of the sea.
"What happened?" asked Gloria of the man by their side.
"I'm trying to make out, miss, One dodo, he says, carrying a
bomb hit by machine-gun oh!
The bomb went off in the dodo's claws and blew him all to pieces."
The echo of a cheer came across the water from the other ships. The first
brush had gone in favor of the race of man!
That night dodos announced their presence by a few bombs dropped tentatively
among the ships.
They did no damage, being hurried and harried by the airmen, and by morning
the dream-towers of
Atlantic City, flecked by the early morning sun, rose out of the west.
Far in the distance the aviators of the expedition had spied more of the birds
but after the first day's encounter with the airplanes they kept a healthy
distance, apparently contented to observe what they could.
As ship after ship strung in toward the piers and discharged its cargo of men,
guns and munitions the birds became bolder, as though to inspect what was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]