The Flying Legion

d, a slight, luminous spot became dimly visible above the trees. The spot took uncertain form high above t

le clack of the tongue-this indefinite luminosity began to sink, to fade, fa

pebble into water, to hear the splash of it. That his plan should be working out, seemed to him a perfectly obvious, inevitable thing. The only factor that

had their eyes fixed on their own lethal-gas pistols and on their watches. At mathematically

s; and, almost on the instant, the phenomenon of the little phosphorescent spot repeated itself, though in a

ten-second intervals. Here, there, they developed, until twenty-nine of these strange, bubble-like th

ith glimpses of sky through wind-swayed trees. One would have

re a cry became audible, there a command. A startled voice called an order, but suddenly fell silent,

unseen watchers strung all about the periphery

ence. Bohannan shuddered a little. His Celtic imagination was at work, again. Uncanny the attack seemed to him, unreal and ghostlike. S

ogether in the dim twilights of the primeval. Not with shout and cheer did it rush forward,

e fell on the hosts of Sennacherib, enfolded all opposition. All who would have stood against

gnificant little light-bubbles, in mid-air, nothing at all had happen

seeming at least six times as long,

h now," said he, "so that we

ew no whistle, gave no signal to the many others scattered all through those darkly silent woods; but right and left, and over beyond the stockade, he knew with the precision of a math

no longer existed any need of silence, hardly a word was spoken. Something vast, imminent,

. The men clambered over rocks, through bushes, across fallen logs. Rrisa stopped, suddenly, played his light on a li

An owl, lodged in the fork of a tree, moved not as the me

whispered exclamations of exultation from the Master's three companions. He himself was the only one who spoke no word.

was looking at him with wide-open eyes. The eyes saw nothing; but a kind of overwhelming astonishm

he man was breathing easily, peacefully as a tired child. The Master's brows contra

the weirdness of the apparition. "Stari

and Rrisa in Arabic affirmed that there is no God but Allah. "Try to force some sense-impression to his brain. It is sleep

shook h

. There's no going against any of your statements. I'm beg

ght-beam on him, Rrisa unbuckled the guard's belt, with cartridges and holster containing an ugly snouted gun. This belt the Arab

more distinctly. Meantime, too, the glow over the stockade was getting stronger. Presently the trees ceased; and there before them the men saw a

nan. None of the others answered. The Master started diagonally across the

was broken by the woods at both ends where the stockade joined its eastern and w

eeping men, now more and more thickly scattered all along the stockade. Save for a slight

and overpowering abandonment. And all, as the party of four passed, were quickl

ssive, of stout oaken planks heavily strapped with iron. About it, and the gate-house, a good m

as indeed it had been-while others stared disconcertingly. The chin of one showed an ugly

e table that occupied the center of the rough room; checker-pieces lay scattered from the game they had been playing.

he approaching men of the expedition. Rrisa affirmed that Mohammed was inde

roval. Even his aplomb was a little shaken by the comple

these men, sir?" qu

nder the orders

is clea

precisely thirty minutes. The way is clea