Free The Earth-Tube by Gawain Edwards

crawling fortresses of the Asians was soon filled with hostile craft, which kept up a steady but useless shower of explosive. The Asians made no effort to reply, but like great, dignified dogs assailed by gnats, they continued their advance upon Montevideo without checking their movement or speeding it.
    “The tanks appear to be exceedingly heavy,” was the report radioed by the observation planes. “They move in formation, rolling out a broad path, deeply scored in the ground.”
    The defenders demanded more accurate information as to the size of the machines, with the idea of digging a trench large enough and deep enough to trap them. But when they had been apprised that such a trench would have to be at least a tenth of a mile wide, a hundred feet deep, and long enough to entirely surround the city on the land side, they abandoned the plan. A steel wall was suggested instead. something against which it was” hoped the monsters would butt their heads in vain. But it was found that so much steel was not available.
    Gradually the fine spirit of the defenders melted away. As the planes reported the enemy drawing closer and closer, great numbers of people began to leave the city, by rail and on foot, running for safety to the hills. Toward evening whole sections of Montevideo had been deserted, and part of it was on fire. A troop of disheartened gunners first sighted the approaching tanks from a point outside the city and greeted them with a fusillade of shells which had no effect. The object of explosive attack from above and on the surface, the enemy monsters approached as through a haze. They loomed up at Montevideo suddenly, like casual and horrendous creatures of the ocean floor, weird and unreal. The useless guns of the defenders were rooted off their mountings after they had fired only three or four rounds of shots. One of the tanks turned aside abruptly from its course to sweep them away with a contemptuous gesture.
    Before dark the whole city was in flames, and the last of the inhabitants who had not found safety outside the city was dead or a captive of the Asians. The tanks seemed to make it a game, to hunt the last of the frightened citizens down into the holes and crannies and by-paths of the ruined and burning city and to ensnarl them there in paralyzing vapor, to be taken prisoner afterward at the pleasure of the conquerors.
    So brutal, so devoid of spectacle or strategy was the conquest of this first American city that fear smote the entire hemisphere. That Buenos Aires would be next was a foregone conclusion, though the defenders there counted on a brief respite because of the water which lay between them and Montevideo. Hastily they set to work blasting a broad and deep moat around the entire city to protect it, if possible, from the tanks until some better way of combat could be devised.

    IV
    Dr. Scott paced his laboratory. It was late at night, 8 and the noises of the city were dim and far away. In a chair by the huge earth model sat King Henderson, gazing at the clay globe with concentration, making calculations from time to time on a pad which he held in his hand.
    “At every hour the problem grows more acute,” muttered the old scientist. “Angell, by his colossal blundering, has now lost the world for us, I’m afraid. He mistakes deliberateness on the part of the Asians for inactivity, slowness for fear. They will conquer South America without a struggle if he doesn’t wake up soon.”
    King nodded, turning the globe slowly with his hand.
    “Perhaps we’ll be able to get some action out of him at the conference to-night,” he suggested.
    “That’s it. but what can we advise him to do? The calculations by which I was able to forecast this invasion give us absolutely no suggestions as to a means of combating it. What can our troops do against the armor plate? It is necessary to face the situation. We are helpless!”
    There was a ring at the door.
    “There they are now, King,” said the