The Lost World MEGAPACK®. Lin Carter

not die. Pierre will lead his dragons—”

      With a wild shout, the wraithlike form stalked toward the forest.

      “Mad! Utterly mad!” Dr. Damon whispered. “I suspected it all along, in the previous six months. The thought of the invisible dragons preyed on his mind.”

      Crane jumped to catch Pierre, but an invisible hand stayed him.

      “Let him go. Time’s short. We have to dodge these shells. We can’t run forward openly, for they’ll be waiting for us. But we can move along the cliff-edges, in comparative safety, ahead of the barrage.”

      “Suppose we survive the bombardment, by a miracle?” Crane said hopelessly. “What then?”

      “Pierre is leading the dragons!” the Invisible Robin Hood breathed.

      Crane started. Had the Invisible Robin Hood gone mad too? But there was little time to speculate. An invisible hand, covered with fine wire mesh, grasped his, pulling him away.

      Jondra had Crane’s other hand, and her father brought up the rear.

      They were to play a new game—dodging shells.

      CHAPTER IX

      Blood Barrage

      Crane was never quite clear how they escaped the holocaust of bombardment. With the precision of army artillery, the field guns methodically lobbed their shells back and forth across the narrow end of the valley. Starting at the cliff-face, the barrage worked inward.

      The tenth shot struck the cave home, scattering logs in all directions. The four were driven forestward, to keep ahead of the destruction. Eventually, they would stumble into the arms of the enemy.

      “What plan have you?” Crane yelled above the terrific rumble of sound banging between the cliffs. “Why didn’t you take the last chance—letting me become invisible? What chance is there now?”

      But no answer came from the man whose unseen hand pulled them forward.

      Crane noticed suddenly that they were working their way toward their own wrecked plane. Had the Invisible Robin Hood forgotten that it was useless for flight? Crane tried to jerk away. Why let this madman lead them to certain destruction?

      “You fool, stay with me!” came back the fierce retort. “Now’s our chance!”

      He was tugging them toward the plane. The barrage had swung toward the other cliff-face, temporarily. They were safe for a few minutes from flying steel splinters and crashing trees.

      “Quick!” commanded the Invisible Robin Hood. “Run your gas out on the ground. But not the reserve tank. Start your engine and let it run on the reserve—at high speed.”

      Crane complied, shaking his head in angry bewilderment.

      The fuel poured out, soaking the plane and all the surrounding ground with its grass and bushes. The motor coughed, but started willingly enough, fed by the reserve tank. Crane set the throttle at half-speed, just at the point where the whole ship trembled and sought to move. A little more and it would trundle forward, to ram into trees with its controls wrecked.

      “Now run!” the invisible man yelled. “Run as fast as you can—”

      And he insanely led the way directly through the barrage line!

      The raking shells began to pound nearer and nearer, like a returning pendulum. Trees crashed behind them, clutching at them with whipping branches. Flying splinters thudded viciously against invisible tree boles.

      Crane felt a nudge in the flesh of his left arm, and the warm stickiness of blood, but raced on. He was half carrying Jondra. An invisible arm was pulling Dr. Damon along faster than his age could propel his muscles.

      The universe seemed falling about their ears. But they made it.

      The thumping barrage swung away on its ordered course. It neared, now, the spot where the plane lay.

      Panting, they stopped and watched as a livid sheet of flame sprang from the spilled gasoline. Trails of fire promptly cracked into the air, following the branches of invisible trees. Billows of smoke swirled into the sky.

      In seconds, the first tentative flames had become a roaring forest fire, fanned by the propeller blasts of air. The next shell sent the plane into oblivion.

      And it scattered firebrands.

      “It worked!” The Invisible Robin Hood’s shout was a cry of triumph.

      The fire became a blazing inferno. Rapidly treetops touched off from one to the next. A line of flame strung itself across the valley from cliff to cliff. Then, like an enraged bull, it charged forward toward the center of the valley.

      Demon fire had joined the battle in the valley of invisibility!

      It was a strange sight. The flames seemed to spring out from nowhere, burning on invisible fuel. Branches and trees became visible, under the scorching death, but again vanished in the consuming blaze.

      Crane hardly realized he had been screeching like a maniac for some time.

      “I get it!” he yelled above the din. “Jondra! Dr. Damon! We’re safe here, where the barrage blew the forest to bits. No fuel for the fire. But the flames will sweep through all the rest of the valley. Harlan and his gang can’t blitzkrieg a fire away. They’re sunk!”

      His voice changed just as suddenly. “But wait—suppose they simply turn the field guns and blast clear their end, before the fire comes. Then they’re saved too.” He groaned. “We’re still no better off!”

      “Pierre is leading the dragons!” the Invisible Robin Hood said enigmatically. In more practical tones, he added, “The valley is narrow. The fire will drive all animals before it, toward the enemy’s camp. Including the dragons. Have you ever seen what a herd of elephants do on a stampede?”

      Jondra shuddered. “The men will be trampled to death!”

      Their jubilance over victory was subdued by the thought of what must be happening on the other side of that pitiless, searing, charging wall of flame.

      The field guns stopped thumping abruptly. Crane could picture the gunners staring at the oncoming wave of fire in horror. Then screaming and running. No “strategic retreat” this time. Just a blind, panic-stricken flight.

      No safety in their plane, with its gasoline but fuel to feed the enveloping flames. No time to take off. They could only stumble hopelessly on, to the very end of the valley. They would turn around then, with their backs to the cliff, eyes horror-struck at their doom. They would tear at each other in the attempt to struggle up the one scalable path out of the valley.

      But before this would come the waves of fleeing animals. The animals would dash themselves against the cliffs, making them slippery with blood. The monstrous dragons would thunder up, snorting, bellowing, trampling. Their mighty feet, as they raced up and down seeking escape, would crush all the lesser animals. Including man.

      It would be a sight no one would want to see.

      The four were silent, waiting. In a short hour, the whole valley had gone up in smoke. Walls of smoke had mercifully screened from their eyes any glimpse of the happenings there. The steady crackle had camouflaged all sounds.

      The flames died, then. The valley lay a smoldering ruin.

      “Every living thing is wiped out!” Crane grunted. “This is the valley of death!”

      “Not quite—listen!”

      They heard the crackling of a ponderous body through the dying embers ahead. Through the pall came limping a smoke-silhouetted dragon. Crane gripped a grenade but then relaxed. The beast, staggering and groaning, had no interest in them. It sought a cool spot. Easing its bulk down in the unburned section, it licked its wounds.

      “Some of the animals escaped,” the Invisible Robin Hood mused. “Perhaps the fleetest deer, and a few of