Backbiting

“ Thus the crash might be averted, but at the same time it was impossible to utilize any side pull of the disk to carry them beyond the enemy’s lines. They were facing capture—perhaps death!
Finding that each was in the other’s way, Taggert, who had a knowledge of engines, continued to tinker with it while Robert looked on from a window, where he kept an eye also on the plain below.
The Sphere continued to settle slowly, though they knew not what moment the gyrostats might stop, allowing them to crash down upon the plain. With each hundred feet of descent their hope grew stronger ”

“ The two tall stacks of the laboratories were silhouetted sharply against the brightening sky. Their black outlines were registered indelibly in Robert’s memory for years afterward. It all seemed like a grotesque dream. Somewhere the shrill scream of a screech-owl cut into the night, breaking the spell.
Final farewells were passed with Henry below, and the window slammed to into its soft rubberstripped socket. The air-purifying devices were put into operation.
With Henry’s aid they had already removed the Sphere from its stall. Its machinery had been carefully inspected that afternoon. ”

“ I swallowed my indignation as well as I could, and consoled myself with the reflection that every watch, even gold repeaters themselves, are subject to the same hardship.
Ah! I was young then, and my knowledge of the world was small. Many a time since I have blessed the chain that held me, just as the ship, could it speak, would bless the cable that saved it from the rocks. Take the advice of an old ticker, you young watches, and instead of rebelling against your chains, rather hope they may be strong and sound in every link! ”

“ It is true that, directly he bit a piece off, the rest vanished; but it was all right, because he knew he had it in his hand though he could neither see nor feel it. He took another bite from the air between his fingers, and it turned into bread as he bit. ”

“ For every ship he had lost, his ships had taken a similar tally—for each sacrifice, a trap was sprung and a similar toll taken. Computers did not sacrifice, did not send men out to certain death. Therefore a sacrifice was greedily snapped up as a mistake of the enemy. And such greed snapped the trap. One move forced the next, once the bait was taken.
As the theme of the theory formed in the General's mind, he suddenly muttered: "Even exchange will balance a computer's potential—but a series of forced, even-exchanges can distort a fleet's position from optimum.... ”

“ The invaders were not without defense.
Adopting a swift, staggered course, Robert managed partly to avoid the blinding beams of light. Instructing Taggert to continue these tactics, Robert prepared to use the Sphere’s powerful weapon, the Norrensen Tube, against their enemies. He prayed only that it would not fail him now, and that their power would hold out long enough.
Calling out to Taggert to steady the Sphere’s course, Robert carefully aimed the tube into the thickest of the invaders where Taggert played the searchlight’s shaft back and forth. ”

“ There were eleven pillars, and all to the eye the same.
“Those other switches,” she said, and felt at the surface of the nearest pillar with quick, fluttering finger-tips. He turned on the switches at the other side of the vault.
“Oh, go back, my darling, go back!” he cried, as the light flashed brighter.
“Try the next pillar,” she urged; “feel for a hole that a key could go into.”
But there was nothing. All the pillars were smooth to the touch as far as their hands could reach. Only the faint unevenness of the lines of cement between the stones. They went over each pillar, quite in vain. ”

“ Perhaps it is true that in the great crises of life the inner eye becomes momentarily opened.
With intense curiosity I awaited the Colonel’s next words, but, a cigarette held nervously between his fingers, he stood staring at Harley, and it was the latter who broke that peculiar silence which had fallen upon us.
“The wing of a bat,” he murmured, then touched it gingerly. “Of what kind of bat, Colonel Menendez? Surely not a British species?”
“But emphatically not a British species,” replied the Spaniard. “Yet even so the matter would be strange.” ”

“ They both looked toward Professor Palmer keenly, as if expecting him to show similar symptoms.
The professor laughed long and heartily, until the pair became convinced that there was something wrong with him, too.
“Well, boys, it’s this way,” he said at last; “the farther away from the Earth we get, the weaker its attraction for us becomes. Of course you feel lighter—you are lighter—and that’s not all. Before we reach Mars, we shall all weigh nothing. We’ll be floating around in here like toy balloons.”
“That’s a fact,” said Robert after a moment’s reflection. ”

“ Feeling himself on the point of utter exhaustion, he nevertheless continued back-paddling, and steering and working inward, till he had succeeded in getting three files of logs between himself and the outer edge. Then, almost blind and with the blood roaring so loud in his ears that he could hardly hear the trampling of the falls, he hung on his log, praying that strength might flow back speedily into his veins and nerves. ”

“ No fellow, Bert, can pull off a big stunt in a football game [189] unaided, but, oh, boy, he can sure do himself proud if he makes good use of what help he gets and knows what to do when the interference peters out! Some backs don’t know how to use their interference, Bert. You’ll see everything set for a big act, and then the runner takes it into his head to break away from interference, or he gets ahead of it or drops too far behind it, and, bingo, some one slips in and nabs him! ”

“ If ever I saw the fighting spirit looking out of any man’s eyes, it looked out of the eyes of Don Juan Sarmiento Menendez. Why, then, did he lie down to the menace of this mysterious Bat Wing, and if he counted opposition futile, why had he summoned Paul Harley to Cray’s Folly? ”

“ A blinding shaft of light shot down upon the broiling mass of humanity beneath. A great cry of consternation was wafted up to them.
“Not exactly elated at our presence,” remarked Taggert, dryly.
“We’ll be about as welcome as a plague a few minutes from now,” remarked Robert.
Swinging the reflector about, he followed every movement of the army of invaders, pausing at intervals to flash instructions to the defenders by a prearranged code of signals corresponding to the smoke signals of the day. Already the enemy was swarming upon the small force of defenders in the outskirts of the metropolis. ”

“ The fact that they were flying at a comparatively low altitude made their speed seem terrific. Robert wisely decided to seek a safer height. He elevated the disk several degrees and the Sphere promptly soared higher. At eight thousand feet he checked its upward trend.
Far away to the east they could see a solitary big biplane bound in the same direction as they—probably a fast mail express; but it was quickly left behind, and lost from view in the afternoon haze.
For twenty minutes they roared northward. Then, to their surprize, a vast body of water appeared against the horizon ahead. ”

“ XXI. Bertie holds the big pin close to the quivering body of the poor butterfly. He must find the exact spot in the middle of his back, so that the operation may not fail. He has told Minnie to put her hands flat down on the net, one on each side of the poor prisoner. The butterfly, thus pressed, can scarcely stir; a few convulsive struggles are the only signs of his agony and his helplessness; his head, with its large eyes, can still move a little. How dreadful his eyes look; they are full of terror. ”

“ Chestboxes went up to Overload and dropped to Dead all around him as he had moved from man to man, shoving the drifting corpses out of his way as he fought to scan each man in turn, to clamp vises on unnoticed broken legs, to snap the Sleeping Valve on men whose instruments showed they were hopelessly near overload. With men trying to work and cursing him for a Scanner while he, professional zeal aroused, fought to do his job and keep them alive in the Great Pain of Space, he had smelled that smell. ”

“ He knows that dull, loud cough of an Archie shell, the hiss of a flying fragment, the wicked black puffs that creep [Pg 67] towards their mark and follow it, no matter where the pilot may swerve. Should a friendly machine tumble to earth after that rare occurrence, a direct hit, all the sensations of an uncontrolled nose-dive are suggested to his senses. He hears the shriek of the up-rushing air, feels the helpless terror. It hurts him to know that he is powerless to save a friend from certain death. ”

“ While baiting traps is not necessary when trapping at dens, yet the trapper who baits his traps will catch more game than if the traps were not baited. To show where a baited trap has the advantage, we will suppose that an animal passes a den where a trap is set but not baited. It is just as a notion takes the animal — it may pay a visit to the den and go in, and again it may not. If a trap is baited the chances are that if the animal passes within a few feet, it will reach the bait. ”

“ When he tried to lift the pin with his right hand its movement communicated itself to the hand that was held fast, and it hurt him more than ever—but he did not say damn again. Instead, he turned towards her a face grey and drawn with pain, and said:
“I’m awfully sorry to bother you—I’ve smashed my fingers under this pin. Could you get a man and a crow-bar, do you think? I’m very sorry to bother you, but I’m quite helpless.”
Before he had got to “man” she had pushed off, and almost as he said “helpless” her boat bumped against the wall at the lock’s other side. ”

“ BITTER-END. That part of the cable which is abaft the bitts, and therefore within board when the ship rides at anchor. They say, "Bend to the bitter-end" when they would have that end bent to the anchor, and when a chain or rope is paid out to the bitter-end, no more remains to be let go. The bitter-end is the clinching end—sometimes that end is bent to the anchor, because it has never been used, and is more trustworthy. The first 40 fathoms of a cable of 115 fathoms is generally worn out when the inner end is comparatively new. ”

“ Directly the wild buck stops, the screen and the men behind it must remain motionless. Having failed to discover what is behind the screen, the buck, though he is still suspicious, feels that he must try to capture that enticing doe, but decides on having a look on the other side of the screen first, so back he gallops to the other flank, and the scrambling process is repeated. ”

“ As it was impossible to explain to you, at one and the same time, all the resources of the needle as well as those of biting, between which, as I told you before, there exist very intimate relations, I had to choose a general example by which to demonstrate the processes employed, and which would allow me to explain the reasons for these processes.
There are two kinds of biting,—flat biting and biting with stopping-out. ”

“ How knowing seems the little worker, as when, the web and his den of concealment being completed, he spins a strong cable from the centre of the web to the entrance of his watch-tower. Then, when a trembling of 212 his aerial spans warns him of a capture, how eagerly he seizes his master cable and jerks away on it, thus vibrating the whole structure and making more certain the confusion of his victim. ”

“ A shell has just burst under one of our windows, breaking the panes and staining the Adjutant Major's papers with mud. Our roof is like a sieve at present. One or other of us is all the time at the telephone. The wires are broken constantly by the shells. The telephonists run along and the communication is set up again. Night and day, we hear the strident ring of the tele [Pg 265] phone bell. Some information arrives, or an order is given, one of the officers gets up, rushes off to the battery—and a telephonic message orders us to stop firing for the moment. ”

“ The brutes remained aboard the Seal, using me as a sort of general factotum, not scrupling to punctuate their orders—all of which, of course, were given in signs—with a dig or two from their spears. I can tell you I was pretty mad with the brutes. Now and again some of them would want to be put ashore for a spell, and they never returned without game of some sort, which they ate absolutely raw. That was what we were running in for when you sighted us. I had steered the old boat as close in as I dared, and had gone below to stop the engines, so I knew nothing of the boarding of the priest. ”

“ He transmitted it apparently by telepathy, for immediately the last lengths of cable came grinding through the hawse pipe.
The anchor was weighed, the invisible propellers began to eddy the water round the stern, hoists of flags shot from the lockers to the yardarm, said their say, and descended in whirls of colour; yet everywhere was the same scrupulous economy of word and gesture. Officers and men were performing a task—that of getting under weigh—so familiar as to be almost mechanical ”

“ Because that is the point where the spokes meet and, therefore, the common centre of vibration. Anything that moves upon the web sets it shaking. All then that is needed is a thread issuing from this central point to convey to a distance the news of a prey struggling in some part or other of the net. The slanting cord, extending outside the plane of the web, is more than a foot-bridge: it is, above all, a signalling-apparatus, a telegraph-wire. ”

“ Strong began to pace the deck of the radar bridge, and with each turn, he glanced at the radar scanner where Roger was waiting anxiously for the telltale blip of the Avenger to appear.
Suddenly the blond-haired cadet stiffened. He peered at the scanner screen, then cried, "There he is, sir!" His finger pointed to a white outline on the scanner.
Strong took a quick look at the pirate's position and compared it to the positions of the converging fleet. He turned to the teleceiver and signaled for the immediate attention of all ships. ”