The Earth-Tube by Gawain Edwards Page A

their attack upon the continent.
    “This atmosphere of armed peacefulness continued until late yesterday when the scouts radioed that a fleet of enemy tanks, lumbering along the northern shore of the bay, appeared to be picking their way carefully inland to seek a crossing.
    “Immediately “there was consternation in the city. Thousands who had earlier professed complete confidence in the defenses of the city began to be afraid. There was a small riot late in the afternoon on the water-front, where a crowd had gathered to leave the city, but it was quickly stopped by the military guards, and the would-be deserters were sent back to their homes.
    “All trade was stopped as darkness fell. The population was warned not to try to leave the city upon pain of execution. Complete martial law was established. Lights were permitted in buildings only on the lower floors, behind drawn blinds. Though there was no sign of enemy aircraft, the aerial defenders swarmed over the housetops all night long, adding more than was necessary to the growing nervousness of the citizens.
    “Reports intended to be quieting were given out from time to time by the military heads, who asserted that the enemy tanks had proceeded a great way up the river and had stopped there, apparently abandoning the threatened attack upon Buenos Aires. These reports were false, 10 however, for at dawn a great clatter of gun-fire was heard west of the city, and daring persons who climbed to the tops of buildings against the orders of the military police saw that the tanks 11 of the enemy were already actually at the attack.
    “The attackers seemed to pause at the edge of the plain, as if to allow the Americans an opportunity to draw their demoralized troops into line. Staunch as a herd of elephants they stood there, while more than a thousand airplanes: bombers, transports, and small fighting machines, darted at them from fore and aft and above, dropping bombs and naming oil. Nineteen airplanes were wrecked in collisions during this extraordinary display, but their efforts against the enemy were-utterly wasted.
    “Suddenly, as if by a signal, the advance began. Deployed in a wedge formation, the enemy tanks advanced slowly and directly toward the edge of the moat, harassed from above by the fighting planes, and from the sides and rear by the fleet of whippet tanks, which charged and charged like Pomeranians attacking a bevy of St. Bernards, and with less effect. The enemy failed to reply even with its steam jets, which had done such destruction in the attack upon Montevideo.
    “One unlucky tank, sent by the inspired order of some officer, ran in front of the leading enemy machine and charged it head-on as if pitting its puny strength against that of the enemy. It crumpled and went down with a sickening crunch, and the huge advancing tank, deflected neither to the right nor left, passed over it without a tremble.
    “The advance did not long continue, however. While the helpless infantry hastened to points of safety beyond the path of the invaders, the enemy tanks drew up at the lip of the moat in a long, threatening line. and stopped.
    “There was a thin, half-hearted cheer from the civilians who had been watching the wasted energy of the whippets with great misgivings. Many shouted across the artificial canyon at the enemy, screaming obscenities and thumbing noses. The whippets renewed their attack from the rear, as if to push the enemy into the ditch where they had refused to go of their own accord.
    “There was a sudden, ominous silence. A tall, white stream of smoke went up from the middle tank, and at its head was a rocket, which curved high and gracefully over the city and burst there, with a thunderous crash.
    “In a moment the citizens were scurrying for their cellars, fearing a bombardment or poison gas. But the rocket, as it turned out, was harmless enough in itself. It was only a signal. The fragments burst into flames and disappeared long before they