Chapter 5

The two combatants were ready and the duel began the moment the gong sounded. The strange thing was that Sir Jorst simply stood with his arms akimbo and waited for his opponent to react. Possibly, the other man had expected this because he raised his pistol and fired. Just as I had done, Sir Jorst dove to the ground, and the bullet from his opponent passed harmlessly over his head.

Sir Jorst stood up and drew his pistol. At the same time, his opponent ran straight at him brandishing his sword and holding his shield in front of his body. Sir Jorst raised his pistol and held it in both hands. He took careful aim and fired at the center of the other man's shield.

BANG! CLANG!

The sound of the bullet being fired and the sound of it striking the shield were so close together that some people might mistake it for one sound. The obvious effect was that the running man took a headfirst tumble and landed on his back by the time he quit moving. The bullet had been horribly distorted as it tore through the shield, and it made a massive wound on the man's chest. Blood was still pumping, so the man could not yet be dead, but he might as well be.

Sir Jorst walked up to the fallen man and took careful aim at his forehead. He thumbed back the hammer and fired a shot into the man's head. His skull practically disintegrated, and the blood stopped flowing from the man's chest. As I had drilled into him a multitude of times, Sir Jorst paused long enough to reload the two spent cartridges before he holstered his pistol and bowed to the cheering crowd. He was escorted in a victory lap around the arena before he was allowed to join his family.

We, of course, were cheering as loudly as anyone else, and welcomed Sir Jorst back to the fold. After a few moments, he said to me, "Hank, I think that next time I will take you up on your offer to be my champion. I am getting too old for this nonsense!"

Now, for practical purposes, I was independently wealthy, but I was also easily bored. I had to find something to do, but I did not know what it could be. I was saved from myself by a summons from the King. Even if I had had something else to do, I would have still answered the request of my attendance at a meeting. The puzzling part of the request was that I come alone; that is, without Anslee or Sir Jorst.

That part of the request was so intriguing that I would not have missed the meeting for the world, as the saying goes. Since I would be traveling alone, I decided to take my Winchester with me as well as my usual complement of arms. I flew to Horurie City in the flying machine that I normally used lately: the one capable of flying at higher than normal altitudes. There was no special reason, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

The meeting was scheduled for mid-morning, so I left right after breakfast. I often went on private excursions in this flying machine at odd times of the day, so Anslee was not surprised when all I said was that I was going flying. She had a meeting that day with some women of the estate, so she would be too busy to be with me if I had stayed at the Manor House. Of such things were coincidences made.

I flew fast enough so that I could be sure to arrive early for the meeting. After all, one did not keep the King waiting. I had just left the boundary of the estate when I noticed three other flying machines approaching me at great speed. I was amazed that the machines could fly that fast, since they were much faster than the one I was using. One whizzed past me so close that I had no trouble seeing that the pilot was wearing the color of the unattached male: dark brown. That was disconcerting, especially since he had flown so close to me as to be a hazard.

It dawned on me to look around to see what the other two flying machines might be doing, and I saw that there was one directly behind me. Uh-oh, that pilot was aiming his pistol in my direction. Without taking the time to give the matter any thought, I dove for the ground as steeply and as fast as I dared. It was well that I did, because I heard the sound of a shot just as my machine started to dive. I heard the sound of a bullet bounce off the sheet metal covering the engine, and I knew that this was a serious attack meant to result in my death!

At the time, I gave no thought to the question of why somebody might want me dead. Hell, there were several of those individuals currently at large, so it would be guessing as to which one it might be, or whether it was one that I had not known about, but was just as determined to cause my death.

Now, there were three flying machines following me in my dive toward the ground, and all three pilots were holding their pistols in preparation for another shot at me. At the moment, the only thing that I could think of that would be of any value was to run as fast as I could toward the grounds of the Estate. My best chance at safety was to head for the Manor House as fast as I could move and to hope that I could get there before my enemies caught me.

I had no chance of outrunning the three machines chasing me. They were visibly closing in on me as I dove for the ground. A trick maneuver occurred to me, and I seem to have little choice in the matter, so I suddenly pulled my flying machine into as steep a climb as the vehicle could manage. That was almost certain to cause at least one of my pursuers to dash past me, and all three would do that if I were lucky enough. I planned to shoot at least one of the pilots as they roared past me, and I had my LeMat ready for just such a shot.

The hammer was cocked and all I had to do was to pull the trigger in order to fire a bullet at the passing pilot. Ah, here they came. All three were moving so fast that they could not pull up to remain in that favorable position behind me. Fortunately, when a pilot flew and maintained control of his ship with the circlet around his head, neither hand was necessary to control the flying machine. Therefore, I could hang on to the safety railing with one hand and shoot with the other.

As the first flying machine came past me, I snapped off a shot at the pilot. I must have scored a fatal hit with that shot because his flying machine began to tumble in the air as if there were no one in control. I quickly fired a second shot at a different flying machine. I don't know where I scored the hit, but the machine suddenly belched black smoke and exploded only a few seconds later.

Two down and one to go. That pilot snapped off a shot at me, and he managed to hit some vital part of my machine. My flying machine suddenly dropped to a very slow speed and headed gently for the ground. I had absolutely no control of the machine as it had gone into its "dead man" mode which was designed to land it on the ground without killing any of the passengers. Normally, that would be fine, but I still had a man out to kill me!

He began to fly in circles around me much as the Comanches back on Earth were prone to do as they looked for a weak place to attack. Well, I now had plenty of time to devote to fighting off this attacker, and this seemed like a good place to use my rifle since neither one of us was traveling very fast. I grabbed up my Winchester and began to fire four shots at the other pilot as fast as I could jack in a fresh bullet and get my aiming point.

It appeared that I had hit him a fatal blow with one of those shots, and he fell over in his seat. His flying machine slowed to the kind of flight that mine was making and carried him to the ground. I landed moments before he did, and made a point of picking up my food, water, and spare ammunition as I prepared to exit my vehicle and climb the nearest tree that could support me.

Once I was safely off the ground and out of reach of a stray liongrith that happened to pass, I used my personal radio to call for help. I was now afforded the same kind of protection that Sir Jorst received, so I called the Army instead of the household guards. Fortunately, they were able to reach me within 20 minutes, so I asked to be taken to the Royal Palace so that I might attend the meeting that the King had called. This put me on King's business, and I was given passage in the fastest flying machine available for the trip.