For answer I turned me about, so as to face my men, and held up my hand
in signal. Instantly the whistles sounded, and my hearties came bounding
into the field.

"Treachery!" shouted Klow; and his officers ran here and there,
shouting: "To arms! Charge and destroy! No quarter!"

But I paid little attention to the hubbub. I were gazing up at those
infernal creatures of the air; and my heart sang within me as I saw
them, circling erratically but very surely down to the earth. And as
they came nearer, my satisfaction was entire; for their engines were
silent!

At the same time consternation was reigning among our visitors. Not a
man of all Klow's thousands was able to move his car or lift a weapon.
Every slinger was jammed, as though frozen by invisible ice; all their
balls and shells were stuck together, like the work of a transparent
glue. Even their side arms were locked in their scabbards; and all their
tugging could budge them not!

But none of my men were so handicapped. Each man's chariot was running
as though naught had happened; they thundered forward, discharging their
balls and shells as freely as they had across the sea. Their charge was
a murderous one; not a man of Klow's was able to resist, save with what
force he could put into his bare hands.

Klow saw all this from the middle of his group of officers. None were
able to more than place his body 'twixt us and their chief. In a very
few moments they saw that the unknown magic had made them as children in
our hands; they were utterly lost; and Klow turned away from the sight