Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-02-24
The Pauiac spraed far ao
swept into its eastward tangent.

the same rough bancas such as they had
seen after the battle-bancas in one OF
which they two had escaped up-river
Boats I! The Horde again."
Even as he shouted tiny. black, mis-
shapen little figure ran crouching out on to
the sand Another followed and third, and
now dozen showed there, very distinct
and hideous, upon the white crescent.
Stern's heart went sick within him. A
terrible rage welled up-a hate such as he
had never believed possible to feel.
Wild imprecations struggled to be voiced.
He snapped his lips together in a thin line,
his eyes narrowed. and his face went gray.
The Internal little beasts." he gritted.
boats loose afterward-and now invading
us Don't know when they're licked, the
swine"
Beatrice had lost her color now. Milk
white her face was her eyes grew wide
with terror; she strove to speak, but could
not.
Her hand went out In a wild, repelling
gesture. as though by the very power of her
love for home skr could protect 1t now
against the inc these foul, dis
torted, inhuman iitt,1 monsters.
Stern acted quickly. He had been about
to cut off power and coast for the beach
but now he veered suddenly to eastward
again, rotated the rising plane, and brought
the Pauillac up at a sharp tilt. Banking,
he advanced the spark notch the engine
shriled a half tone higher, and with in
creased speed the aero lifted them bravely
in a long and rising swoop.
He snatched his automatic from its
holster on his hip and as the plane swept
past the beach, downstream, let fly
spatter of steel-jacketed souvenirs at the
fast-thickenng pack on the sand.
Far up to the girl and him, half heard
through the clatter of the motors, they
sensed a thin, defiant, barbarous yell-a
yapping chorus, bestial and horrible.
Again Stern fired.
He could see quick spurts of water Jet
up along the edge of the sand. and one of
the creatures fell, but this was only a
chance shot. .....
At that distance, firing from a swift
skimming plane, he knew he could do no
execution, and with a curse slid the pistol
back again into its place.
"Oh, for a dirigible and a few maximite
bombs, same as We had in the tower!' he
wished. 'Td clean the blighters out mighty
quick"
But now Beatrice was pointing, with a
cry OF dismay, down, away at the bungalow
itself, which had for a moment become
visible at the far end of the clearing as the
Pauillac scuddled past.
Even as Stern thought: 'Odd, but they're
not afraid of us--a flying machine means
nothing to them. does not terrify them as
It would human savages. They're too de-
based even to feel fear !'-even as this
thought crossed his brain he, too, saw the
terrible thing that the girl had cried out
at sight of. ''''.t. ..'.
MY God !" he shouted. "This-thls is too
much !"
All about the bungalow, their home, the
scene of such happy hours so many dreams
and hopes, such heart-enthralling labors,
hundreds of the Horde were swarming.
Like vicious parasites attacking prey.
they overran the garden, the grounds, even
the house itself.
As in all lie
of months must be undone-the fruit trees
he had rescued from the forest be cut down
or broken. the bulbs and roots In the
garden uptorn, even the hedges and fences
trampled fiat,
Worse still the bungalow was being de-
stroyed! Rather, its contents, since the
concrete walls deied the venomous troop
They knew, at any rate, the use OF fire.
and not SO swiftly SKINNED the Pauillac as
to prevent both Stern and Beatrice seeing
a thin but ominous thread of smoke out
curling on the June air from one of the
living room windows.
With an imprecation of unutterable hate
and rage. yet iWpotent to stay the ravish-
ment of Hope>Villa, Stern brought the ma
chine round in long spiral.
p For moment the wild, suicidal idea
possessed him 70 land on the beach, after
ALL and charge the little slate-blue devils
who had evidently piled all the furnishings
together In the bungalow and were now
burning them
He ionsed for slaughter now; he Iusted
blood-the blood of the Anthropold pack
which from the beginning had hung upon
his hank and been as a thorn unto his
flesh. tf
He seemed to feel the JOY OF rushing
them an automatic In each hand splitting
DEATH Just as he had mown down the Lans-
kaarn In the battle of the Wall. down below
In the abyss Even though he knew the
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