[Transcriber's Note: This story was first published in March 1955_Galaxy_ and the etext was produced from the anthology "All theTraps of Earth and other stories". Extensive research did notuncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publicationwas renewed. ]

PROJECT MASTODON

By

Clifford D. Simak

The chief of protocol said, "Mr. Hudson of--ah--Mastodonia. "

The secretary of state held out his hand. "I'm glad to see you, Mr. Hudson. I understand you've been here several times. "

"That's right, " said Hudson. "I had a hard time making your peoplebelieve I was in earnest. "

"And are you, Mr. Hudson?"

"Believe me, sir, I would not try to fool you. "

"And this Mastodonia, " said the secretary, reaching down to tapthe document upon the desk. "You will pardon me, but I've neverheard of it. "

"It's a new nation, " Hudson explained, "but quite legitimate. Wehave a constitution, a democratic form of government, duly electedofficials, and a code of laws. We are a free, peace-loving peopleand we are possessed of a vast amount of natural resources and--"

"Please tell me, sir, " interrupted the secretary, "just where areyou located?"

"Technically, you are our nearest neighbors. "

"But that is ridiculous!" exploded Protocol. 

"Not at all, " insisted Hudson. "If you will give me a moment, Mr. Secretary, I have considerable evidence. "

He brushed the fingers of Protocol off his sleeve and steppedforward to the desk, laying down the portfolio he carried. 

"Go ahead, Mr. Hudson, " said the secretary. "Why don't we all sitdown and be comfortable while we talk this over?"

"You have my credentials, I see. Now here is a propos--"

"I have a document signed by a certain Wesley Adams. "

"He's our first president, " said Hudson. "Our George Washington, you might say. "

"What is the purpose of this visit, Mr. Hudson?"

"We'd like to establish diplomatic relations. We think it would beto our mutual benefit. After all, we are a sister republic inperfect sympathy with your policies and aims. We'd like tonegotiate trade agreements and we'd be grateful for some PointFour aid. "

The secretary smiled. "Naturally. Who doesn't?"

"We're prepared to offer something in return, " Hudson told himstiffly. "For one thing, we could offer sanctuary. "

"Sanctuary!"

"I understand, " said Hudson, "that in the present state ofinternational tensions, a foolproof sanctuary is not something tobe sneezed at. "

The secretary turned stone cold. "I'm an extremely busy man. "

Protocol took Hudson firmly by the arm. "Out you go. "

General Leslie Bowers put in a call to State and got thesecretary. 

"I don't like to bother you, Herb, " he said, "but there'ssomething I want to check. Maybe you can help me. "

"Glad to help you if I can. "

"There's a fellow hanging around out here at the Pentagon, tryingto get in to see me. Said I was the only one he'd talk to, but youknow how it is. "

"I certainly do. "

"Name of Huston or Hudson or something like that. "

"He was here just an hour or so ago, " said the secretary. "Crackpot sort of fellow. "

"He's gone now?"

"Yes. I don't think he'll be back. "

"Did he say where you could reach him?"

"No, I don't believe he did. "

"How did he strike you? I mean what kind of impression did you getof him?"

"I told you. A crackpot. "

"I suppose he is. He said something to one of the colonels thatgot me worrying. Can't pass up anything, you know--not in theDirty Tricks Department. Even if it's crackpot, these days you gotto have a look at it. "

"He offered sanctuary, " said the secretary indignantly. "Can youimagine that!"

"He's been making the rounds, I guess, " the general said. "He wasover at AEC. Told them some sort of tale about knowing where therewere vast uranium deposits. It was the AEC that told me he washeading your way. "

"We get them all the time. Usually we can ease them out. ThisHudson was just a little better than the most of them. He got into see me. "

"He told the colonel something about having a plan that wouldenable us to establish secret bases anywhere we wished, even inthe territory of potential enemies. I know it sounds crazy.... "

"Forget it, Les. "

"You're probably right, " said the general, "but this idea sendsme. Can you imagine the look on their Iron Curtain faces?"

The scared little government clerk, darting conspiratorial glancesall about him, brought the portfolio to the FBI. 

"I found it in a bar down the street, " he told the man who tookhim in tow. "Been going there for years. And I found thisportfolio laying in the booth. I saw the man who must have left itthere and I tried to find him later, but I couldn't. "

"How do you know he left it there?"

"I just figured he did. He left the booth just as I came in and itwas sort of dark in there and it took a minute to see this thinglaying there. You see, I always take the same booth every day andJoe sees me come in and he brings me the usual and--"

"You saw this man leave the booth you usually sit in?"

"That's right. "

"Then you saw the portfolio. "

"Yes, sir. "

"You tried to find the man, thinking it must have been his. "

"That's exactly what I did. "

"But by the time you went to look for him, he had disappeared. "

"That's the way it was. "

"Now tell me--why did you bring it here? Why didn't you turn it into the management so the man could come back and claim it?"

"Well, sir, it was like this. I had a drink or two and I waswondering all the time what was in that portfolio. So finally Itook a peek and--"

"And what you saw decided you to bring it here to us. "

"That's right. I saw--"

"Don't tell me what you saw. Give me your name and address anddon't say anything about this. You understand that we're gratefulto you for thinking of us, but we'd rather you said nothing. "

"Mum's the word, " the little clerk assured him, full of vastimportance. 

The FBI phoned Dr. Ambrose Amberly, Smithsonian expert onpaleontology. 

"We've got something, Doctor, that we'd like you to have a lookat. A lot of movie film. "

"I'll be most happy to. I'll come down as soon as I get clear. Endof the week, perhaps?"

"This is very urgent, Doctor. Damnest thing you ever saw. Big, shaggy elephants and tigers with teeth down to their necks. There's a beaver the size of a bear. "

"Fakes, " said Amberly, disgusted. "Clever gadgets. Camera angles. "

"That's what we thought first, but there are no gadgets, no cameraangles. This is the real McCoy. "

"I'm on my way, " the paleontologist said, hanging up. 

_Snide item in smug, smartaleck gossip column: Saucers are passéat the Pentagon. There's another mystery that's got the high brassvery high. _

II

President Wesley Adams and Secretary of State John Cooper satglumly under a tree in the capital of Mastodonia and waited forthe ambassador extraordinary to return. 

"I tell you, Wes, " said Cooper, who, under various pseudonyms, wasalso the secretaries of commerce, treasury and war, "this is acrazy thing we did. What if Chuck can't get back? They might throwhim in jail or something might happen to the time unit or thehelicopter. We should have gone along. "

"We had to stay, " Adams said. "You know what would happen to thiscamp and our supplies if we weren't around here to guard them. "

"The only thing that's given us any trouble is that old mastodon. If he comes around again, I'm going to take a skillet and bang himin the brisket. "

"That isn't the only reason, either, " said President Adams, "andyou know it. We can't go deserting this nation now that we'vecreated it. We have to keep possession. Just planting a flag andsaying it's ours wouldn't be enough. We might be called upon forproof that we've established residence. Something like the oldhomestead laws, you know. "

"We'll establish residence sure enough, " growled Secretary Cooper, "if something happens to that time unit or the helicopter. "

"You think they'll do it, Johnny?"

"Who do what?"

"The United States. Do you think they'll recognize us?"

"Not if they know who we are. "

"That's what I'm afraid of. "

"Chuck will talk them into it. He can talk the skin right off acat. "

"Sometimes I think we're going at this wrong. Sure, Chuck's gotthe long-range view and I suppose it's best. But maybe what weought to do is grab a good, fast profit and get out of here. Wecould take in hunting parties at ten thousand a head or maybe wecould lease it to a movie company. "

"We can do all that and do it legally and with full protection, "Cooper told him, "if we can get ourselves recognized as asovereign nation. If we negotiate a mutual defense pact, no onewould dare get hostile because we could squawk to Uncle Sam. "

"All you say is true, " Adams agreed, "but there are going to bequestions. It isn't just a matter of walking into Washington andgetting recognition. They'll want to know about us, such as ourpopulation. What if Chuck has to tell them it's a total of threepersons?"

Cooper shook his head. "He wouldn't answer that way, Wes. He'dduck the question or give them some diplomatic double-talk. Afterall, how can we be _sure_ there are only three of us? We took overthe whole continent, remember. "

"You know well enough, Johnny, there are no other humans back herein North America. The farthest back any scientist will place themigrations from Asia is 30, 000 years. They haven't got here yet. "

"Maybe we should have done it differently, " mused Cooper. "Maybewe should have included the whole world in our proclamation, notjust the continent. That way, we could claim quite a population. "

"It wouldn't have held water. Even as it is, we went a littlefurther than precedent allows. The old explorers usually laidclaim to certain watersheds. They'd find a river and lay claim toall the territory drained by the river. They didn't go grabbingoff whole continents. "

"That's because they were never sure of exactly what they had, "said Cooper. "We are. We have what you might call the advantage ofhindsight. "

He leaned back against the tree and stared across the land. It wasa pretty place, he thought--the rolling ridges covered by vastgrazing areas and small groves, the forest-covered, ten-mile rivervalley. And everywhere one looked, the grazing herds of mastodon, giant bison and wild horses, with the less gregarious faunascattered hit and miss. 

Old Buster, the troublesome mastodon, a lone bull which had beenprobably run out of a herd by a younger rival, stood at the edgeof a grove a quarter-mile away. He had his head down and wascurling and uncurling his trunk in an aimless sort of way while heteetered slowly in a lazy-crazy fashion by lifting first one footand then another. 

The old cuss was lonely, Cooper told himself. That was why he hungaround like a homeless dog--except that he was too big and awkwardto have much pet-appeal and, more than likely, his temper wasunstable. 

The afternoon sun was pleasantly warm and the air, it seemed toCooper, was the freshest he had ever smelled. It was, altogether, a very pleasant place, an Indian-summer sort of land, ideal for aSunday picnic or a camping trip. 

The breeze was just enough to float out from its flagstaff beforethe tent the national banner of Mastodonia--a red rampant mastodonupon a field of green. 

"You know, Johnny, " said Adams, "there's one thing that worries mea lot. If we're going to base our claim on precedent, we may beway off base. The old explorers always claimed their discoveriesfor their nations or their king, never for themselves. "

"The principle was entirely different, " Cooper told him. "Nobodyever did anything for himself in those days. Everyone was alwaysunder someone else's protection. The explorers either werefinanced by their governments or were sponsored by them oroperated under a royal charter or a patent. With us, it'sdifferent. Ours is a private enterprise. You dreamed up the timeunit and built it. The three of us chipped in to buy thehelicopter. We've paid all of our expenses out of our own pockets. We never got a dime from anyone. What we found is ours. "

"I hope you're right, " said Adams uneasily. 

Old Buster had moved out from the grove and was shuffling warilytoward the camp. Adams picked up the rifle that lay across hisknees. 

"Wait, " said Cooper sharply. "Maybe he's just bluffing. It wouldbe a shame to plaster him; he's such a nice old guy. "

Adams half raised the rifle. 

"I'll give him three steps more, " he announced. "I've had enoughof him. "

Suddenly a roar burst out of the air just above their heads. Thetwo leaped to their feet. 

"It's Chuck!" Cooper yelled. "He's back!"

The helicopter made a half-turn of the camp and came rapidly toEarth. 

Trumpeting with terror, Old Buster was a dwindling dot far downthe grassy ridge. 

III

They built the nightly fires circling the camp to keep out theanimals. 

"It'll be the death of me yet, " said Adams wearily, "cutting allthis wood. "

"We have to get to work on that stockade, " Cooper said. "We'vefooled around too long. Some night, fire or no fire, a herd ofmastodon will come busting in here and if they ever hit thehelicopter, we'll be dead ducks. It wouldn't take more than justfive seconds to turn us into Robinson Crusoes of the Pleistocene. "

"Well, now that this recognition thing has petered out on us, "said Adams, "maybe we can get down to business. "

"Trouble is, " Cooper answered, "we spent about the last of ourmoney on the chain saw to cut this wood and on Chuck's trip toWashington. To build a stockade, we need a tractor. We'd killourselves if we tried to rassle that many logs bare-handed. "

"Maybe we could catch some of those horses running around outthere. "

"Have you ever broken a horse?"

"No, that's one thing I never tried. "

"Me, either. How about you, Chuck?"

"Not me, " said the ex-ambassador extraordinary bluntly. 

Cooper squatted down beside the coals of the cooking fire andtwirled the spit. Upon the spit were three grouse and half a dozenquail. The huge coffee pot was sending out a nose-tingling aroma. Biscuits were baking in the reflector. 

"We've been here six weeks, " he said, "and we're still living in atent and cooking on an open fire. We better get busy and getsomething done. "

"The stockade first, " said Adams, "and that means a tractor. "

"We could use the helicopter. "

"Do you want to take the chance? That's our getaway. Oncesomething happens to it.... "

"I guess not, " Cooper admitted, gulping. 

"We could use some of that Point Four aid right now, " commentedAdams. 

"They threw me out, " said Hudson. "Everywhere I went, sooner orlater they got around to throwing me out. They were real organizedabout it. "

"Well, we tried, " Adams said. 

"And to top it off, " added Hudson, "I had to go and lose all thatfilm and now we'll have to waste our time taking more of it. Personally, I don't ever want to let another saber-tooth get thatclose to me while I hold the camera. "

"You didn't have a thing to worry about, " Adams objected. "Johnnywas right there behind you with the gun. "

"Yeah, with the muzzle about a foot from my head when he let go. "

"I stopped him, didn't I?" demanded Cooper. 

"With his head right in my lap. "

"Maybe we won't have to take any more pictures, " Adams suggested. 

"We'll have to, " Cooper said. "There are sportsmen up ahead who'dfork over ten thousand bucks easy for two weeks of hunting here. But before we could sell them on it, we'd have to show themmovies. That scene with the saber-tooth would cinch it. "

"If it didn't scare them off, " Hudson pointed out. "The last fewfeet showed nothing but the inside of his throat. "

Ex-ambassador Hudson looked unhappy. "I don't like the wholesetup. As soon as we bring someone in, the news is sure to leak. And once the word gets out, there'll be guys lying in ambush forus--maybe even nations--scheming to steal the know-how, legally orviolently. That's what scares me the most about those films Ilost. Someone will find them and they may guess what it's allabout, but I'm hoping they either won't believe it or can't manageto trace us. "

"We could swear the hunting parties to secrecy, " said Cooper. 

"How could a sportsman keep still about the mounted head of asaber-tooth or a record piece of ivory?" And the same thing wouldapply to anyone we approached. Some university could raise doughto send a team of scientists back here and a movie company wouldcough up plenty to use this place as a location for a cavemanepic. But it wouldn't be worth a thing to either of them if theycouldn't tell about it. 

"Now if we could have gotten recognition as a nation, we'd havebeen all set. We could make our own laws and regulations and beable to enforce them. We could bring in settlers and establishtrade. We could exploit our natural resources. It would all belegal and aboveboard. We could tell who we were and where we wereand what we had to offer. "

"We aren't licked yet, " said Adams. "There's a lot that we can do. Those river hills are covered with ginseng. We can each dig adozen pounds a day. There's good money in the root. "

"Ginseng root, " Cooper said, "is peanuts. We need _big_ money. "

"Or we could trap, " offered Adams. "The place is alive withbeaver. "

"Have you taken a good look at those beaver? They're about thesize of a St. Bernard. "

"All the better. Think how much just one pelt would bring. "

"No dealer would believe that it was beaver. He'd think you weretrying to pull a fast one on him. And there are only a few statesthat allow beaver to be trapped. To sell the pelts--even if youcould--you'd have to take out licenses in each of those states. "

"Those mastodon carry a lot of ivory, " said Cooper. "And if wewanted to go north, we'd find mammoths that would carry evenmore.... "

"And get socked into the jug for ivory smuggling?"

They sat, all three of them, staring at the fire, not findinganything to say. 

The moaning complaint of a giant hunting cat came from somewhereup the river. 

IV

Hudson lay in his sleeping bag, staring at the sky. It botheredhim a lot. There was not one familiar constellation, not one starthat he could name with any certainty. This juggling of the stars, he thought, emphasized more than anything else in this ancientland the vast gulf of years which lay between him and the Earthwhere he had been--or would be--born. 

A hundred and fifty thousand years, Adams had said, give or taketen thousand. There just was no way to know. Later on, there mightbe. A measurement of the stars and a comparison with theirpositions in the twentieth century might be one way of doing it. But at the moment, any figure could be no more than a guess. 

The time machine was not something that could be tested forcalibration or performance. As a matter of fact, there _was_ noway to test it. They had not been certain, he remembered, thefirst time they had used it, that it would really work. There hadbeen no way to find out. When it worked, you knew it worked. Andif it hadn't worked, there would have been no way of knowingbeforehand that it wouldn't. 

Adams had been sure, of course, but that had been because he hadabsolute reliance in the half-mathematical, half-philosophicconcepts he had worked out--concepts that neither Hudson norCooper could come close to understanding. 

That had always been the way it had been, even when they werekids, with Wes dreaming up the deals that he and Johnny carriedout. Back in those days, too, they had used time travel in theirplay. Out in Johnny's back yard, they had rigged up a timemachine out of a wonderful collection of salvaged junk--a woodencrate, an empty five-gallon paint pail, a battered coffee maker, abunch of discarded copper tubing, a busted steering wheel andother odds and ends. In it, they had "traveled" back toIndian-before-the-white-man land and mammoth-land anddinosaur-land and the slaughter, he remembered, had beenwonderfully appalling. 

But, in reality, it had been much different. There was much moreto it than gunning down the weird fauna that one found. 

And they should have known there would be, for they had talkedabout it often. 

He thought of the bull session back in university and the little, usually silent kid who sat quietly in the corner, a law-schoolstudent whose last name had been Pritchard. 

And after sitting silently for some time, this Pritchard kid hadspoken up: "If you guys ever do travel in time, you'll run upagainst more than you bargain for. I don't mean the climate or theterrain or the fauna, but the economics and the politics. "

They all jeered at him, Hudson remembered, and then had gone onwith their talk. And after a short while, the talk had turned towomen, as it always did. 

He wondered where that quiet man might be. Some day, Hudson toldhimself, I'll have to look him up and tell him he was right. 

We did it wrong, he thought. There were so many other ways wemight have done it, but we'd been so sure and greedy--greedy forthe triumph and the glory--and now there was no easy way tocollect. 

On the verge of success, they could have sought out help, gone tosome large industrial concern or an educational foundation or evento the government. Like historic explorers, they could haveobtained subsidization and sponsorship. Then they would have hadprotection, funds to do a proper job and they need not haveoperated on their present shoestring--one beaten-up helicopter andone time unit. They could have had several and at least onestanding by in the twentieth century as a rescue unit, should thatbe necessary. 

But that would have meant a bargain, perhaps a very hard one, andsharing with someone who had contributed nothing but the money. And there was more than money in a thing like this--there weretwenty years of dreams and a great idea and the dedication tothat great idea--years of work and years of disappointment and analmost fanatical refusal to give up. 

Even so, thought Hudson, they had figured well enough. There hadbeen many chances to make blunders and they'd made relatively few. All they lacked, in the last analysis, was backing. 

Take the helicopter, for example. It was the one satisfactoryvehicle for time traveling. You had to get up in the air to clearwhatever upheavals and subsidences there had been through geologicages. The helicopter took you up and kept you clear and gave you achance to pick a proper landing place. Travel without it and, granting you were lucky with land surfaces, you still mightmaterialize in the heart of some great tree or end up in a swampor the middle of a herd of startled, savage beasts. A plane wouldhave done as well, but back in this world, you couldn't land aplane--or you couldn't be certain that you could. A helicopter, though, could land almost anywhere. 

In the time-distance they had traveled, they almost certainly hadbeen lucky, although one could not be entirely sure just how greata part of it was luck. Wes had felt that he had not been workingas blindly as it sometimes might appear. He had calibrated theunit for jumps of 50, 000 years. Finer calibration, he had saidrealistically, would have to wait for more developmental work. 

Using the 50, 000-year calibrations, they had figured it out. Onejump (conceding that the calibration was correct) would havelanded them at the end of the Wisconsin glacial period; two jumps, at its beginning. The third would set them down toward the end ofthe Sangamon Interglacial and apparently it had--give or take tenthousand years or so. 

They had arrived at a time when the climate did not seem to varygreatly, either hot or cold. The flora was modern enough to givethem a homelike feeling. The fauna, modern and Pleistocenic, overlapped. And the surface features were little altered from thetwentieth century. The rivers ran along familiar paths, the hillsand bluffs looked much the same. In this corner of the Earth, atleast, 150, 000 years had not changed things greatly. 

Boyhood dreams, Hudson thought, were wondrous. It was not oftenthat three men who had daydreamed in their youth could follow itout to its end. But they had and here they were. 

Johnny was on watch, and it was Hudson's turn next, and he'dbetter get to sleep. He closed his eyes, then opened them againfor another look at the unfamiliar stars. The east, he saw, wasflushed with silver light. Soon the Moon would rise, which wasgood. A man could keep a better watch when the Moon was up. 

He woke suddenly, snatched upright and into full awareness by themarrow-chilling clamor that slashed across the night. The very airseemed curdled by the savage racket and, for a moment, he satnumbed by it. Then, slowly, it seemed--his brain took the noiseand separated it into two distinct but intermingled categories, the deadly screaming of a cat and the maddened trumpeting of amastodon. 

The Moon was up and the countryside was flooded by its light. Cooper, he saw, was out beyond the watchfires, standing there andwatching, with his rifle ready. Adams was scrambling out of hissleeping bag, swearing softly to himself. The cooking fire hadburned down to a bed of mottled coals, but the watchfires stillwere burning and the helicopter, parked within their circle, picked up the glint of flames. 

"It's Buster, " Adams told him angrily. "I'd know that bellowing ofhis anywhere. He's done nothing but parade up and down and bellowever since we got here. And now he seems to have gone out andfound himself a saber-tooth. "

Hudson zipped down his sleeping bag, grabbed up his rifle andjumped to his feet, following Adams in a silent rush to whereCooper stood. 

Cooper motioned at them. "Don't break it up. You'll never see thelike of it again. "

Adams brought his rifle up. 

Cooper knocked the barrel down. 

"You fool!" he shouted. "You want them turning on us?"

Two hundred yards away stood the mastodon and, on his back, thescreeching saber-tooth. The great beast reared into the air andcame down with a jolt, bucking to unseat the cat, flailing the airwith his massive trunk. And as he bucked, the cat struck andstruck again with his gleaming teeth, aiming for the spine. 

Then the mastodon crashed head downward, as if to turn asomersault, rolled and was on his feet again, closer to them nowthan he had been before. The huge cat had sprung off. 

For a moment, the two stood facing one another. Then the tigercharged, a flowing streak of motion in the moonlight. Busterwheeled away and the cat, leaping, hit his shoulder, clawed wildlyand slid off. The mastodon whipped to the attack, tusks slashing, huge feet stamping. The cat, caught a glancing blow by one of thetusks, screamed and leaped up, to land in spread-eagle fashionupon Buster's head. 

Maddened with pain and fright, blinded by the tiger's rakingclaws, the old mastodon ran--straight toward the camp. And as heran, he grasped the cat in his trunk and tore him from his hold, lifted him high and threw him. 

"Look out!" yelled Cooper and brought his rifle up and fired. 

For an instant, Hudson saw it all as if it were a single scene, motionless, one frame snatched from a fantastic movie epic--thecharging mastodon, with the tiger lifted and the sound track onegreat blast of bloodthirsty bedlam. 

Then the scene dissolved in a blur of motion. He felt his riflethud against his shoulder, knowing he had fired, but not hearingthe explosion. And the mastodon was almost on top of him, bearingdown like some mighty and remorseless engine of blind destruction. 

He flung himself to one side and the giant brushed past him. Outof the tail of his eye, he saw the thrown saber-tooth crash toEarth within the circle of the watchfires. 

He brought his rifle up again and caught the area behind Buster'sear within his sights. He pressed the trigger. The mastodonstaggered, then regained his stride and went rushing on. He hitone of the watchfires dead center and went through it, scatteringcoals and burning brands. 

Then there was a thud and the screeching clang of metal. 

"Oh, no!" shouted Hudson. 

Rushing forward, they stopped inside the circle of the fires. 

The helicopter lay tilted at a crazy angle. One of its rotorblades was crumpled. Half across it, as if he might have fallen ashe tried to bull his mad way over it, lay the mastodon. 

Something crawled across the ground toward them, its spitting, snarling mouth gaping in the firelight, its back broken, hind legstrailing. 

Calmly, without a word, Adams put a bullet into the head of thesaber-tooth. 

V

General Leslie Bowers rose from his chair and paced up and downthe room. He stopped to bang the conference table with a knottedfist. 

"You can't do it, " he bawled at them. "You can't kill the project. I _know_ there's something to it. We can't give it up!"

"But it's been ten years, General, " said the secretary of thearmy. "If they were coming back, they'd be here by now. "

The general stopped his pacing, stiffened. Who did that littlecivilian squirt think he was, talking to the military in that toneof voice!

"We know how you feel about it, General, " said the chairman of thejoint chiefs of staff. "I think we all recognize how deeply you'reinvolved. You've blamed yourself all these years and there is noneed of it. After all, there may be nothing to it. "

"Sir, " said the general, "I _know_ there's something to it. Ithought so at the time, even when no one else did. And what we'veturned up since serves to bear me out. Let's take a look at thesethree men of ours. We knew almost nothing of them at the time, butwe know them now. I've traced out their lives from the time thatthey were born until they disappeared--and I might add that, onthe chance it might be all a hoax, we've searched for them foryears and we've found no trace at all. 

"I've talked with those who knew them and I've studied theirscholastic and military records. I've arrived at the conclusionthat if any three men could do it, they were the ones who could. Adams was the brains and the other two were the ones who carriedout the things that he dreamed up. Cooper was a bulldog sort ofman who could keep them going and it would be Hudson who wouldfigure out the angles. 

"And they knew the angles, gentlemen. They had it all doped out. 

"What Hudson tried here in Washington is substantial proof ofthat. But even back in school, they were thinking of those angles. I talked some years ago to a lawyer in New York, name ofPritchard. He told me that even back in university, they talkedof the economic and political problems that they might face ifthey ever cracked what they were working at. 

"Wesley Adams was one of our brightest young scientific men. Hisrecord at the university and his war work bears that out. Afterthe war, there were at least a dozen jobs he could have had. Buthe wasn't interested. And I'll tell you why he wasn't. He hadsomething bigger--something he wanted to work on. So he and thesetwo others went off by themselves--"

"You think he was working on a temporal--" the army secretary cutin. 

"He was working on a time machine, " roared the general. "I don'tknow about this 'temporal' business. Just plain 'time machine' isgood enough for me. "

"Let's calm down, General, " said the JCS chairman, "After all, there's no need to shout. "

The general nodded. "I'm sorry, sir. I get all worked up aboutthis. I've spent the last ten years with it. As you say, I'mtrying to make up for what I failed to do ten years ago. I shouldhave talked to Hudson. I was busy, sure, but not that busy. It'san official state of mind that we're too busy to see anyone and Iplead guilty on that score. And now that you're talking aboutclosing the project--"

"It's costing us money, " said the army secretary. 

"And we have no direct evidence, " pointed out the JCS chairman. 

"I don't know what you want, " snapped the general. "If there wasany man alive who could crack time, that man was Wesley Adams. Wefound where he worked. We found the workshop and we talked toneighbors who said there was something funny going on and--"

"But ten years, General!" the army secretary protested. 

"Hudson came here, bringing us the greatest discovery in allhistory, and we kicked him out. After that, do you expect them tocome crawling back to us?"

"You think they went to someone else?"

"They wouldn't do that. They know what the thing they have foundwould mean. They wouldn't sell us out. "

"Hudson came with a preposterous proposition, " said the man fromthe state department. 

"They had to protect themselves!" yelled the general. "If you haddiscovered a virgin planet with its natural resources intact, whatwould you do about it? Come trotting down here and hand it over toa government that's too 'busy' to recognize--"

"General!"

"Yes, sir, " apologized the general tiredly. "I wish you gentlemencould see my view of it, how it all fits together. First therewere the films and we have the word of a dozen competentpaleontologists that it's impossible to fake anything as perfectas those films. But even granting that they could be, there arecertain differences that no one would ever think of faking, because no one ever knew. Who, as an example, would put lynxtassels on the ears of a saber-tooth? Who would know that youngmastodon were black?

"And the location. I wonder if you've forgotten that we trackeddown the location of Adams' workshop from those films alone. Theygave us clues so positive that we didn't even hesitate--we drovestraight to the old deserted farm where Adams and his friends hadworked. Don't you see how it all fits together?"

"I presume, " the man from the state department said nastily, "thatyou even have an explanation as to why they chose that particularlocation. "

"You thought you had me there, " said the general, "but I have ananswer. A good one. The southwestern corner of Wisconsin is ageologic curiosity. It was missed by all the glaciations. Why, wedo not know. Whatever the reason, the glaciers came down on bothsides of it and far to the south of it and left it standing there, a little island in a sea of ice. 

"And another thing: Except for a time in the Triassic, that samearea of Wisconsin has always been dry land. That and a few otherspots are the only areas in North America which have not, time andtime again, been covered by water. I don't think it necessary topoint out the comfort it would be to an experimental traveler intime to be certain that, in almost any era he might hit, he'd havedry land beneath him. "

The economics expert spoke up: "We've given this matter a lot ofstudy and, while we do not feel ourselves competent to rule uponthe possibility or impossibility of time travel, there are someobservations I should like, at some time, to make. "

"Go ahead right now, " said the JCS chairman. 

"We see one objection to the entire matter. One of the reasons, naturally, that we had some interest in it is that, if true, itwould give us an entire new planet to exploit, perhaps more wiselythan we've done in the past. But the thought occurs that anyplanet has only a certain grand total of natural resources. If wego into the past and exploit them, what effect will that have uponwhat is left of those resources for use in the present? Wouldn'twe, in doing this, be robbing ourselves of our own heritage?"

"That contention, " said the AEC chairman, "wouldn't hold true inevery case. Quite the reverse, in fact. We know that there was, insome geologic ages in the past, a great deal more uranium than wehave today. Go back far enough and you'd catch that uranium beforeit turned into lead. In southwestern Wisconsin, there is a lot oflead. Hudson told us he knew the location of vast uranium depositsand we thought he was a crackpot talking through his hat. If we'dknown--let's be fair about this--if we had known and believed himabout going back in time, we'd have snapped him up at once and allthis would not have happened. "

"It wouldn't hold true with forests, either, " said the chairman ofthe JCS. "Or with pastures or with crops. "

The economics expert was slightly flushed. "There is anotherthing, " he said. "If we go back in time and colonize the land wefind there, what would happen when that--well, let's call itretroactive--when that retroactive civilization reaches thebeginning of our historic period? What will result from thatcultural collision? Will our history change? Is what has happenedfalse? Is all--"

"That's all poppycock!" the general shouted. "That and this othertalk about using up resources. Whatever we did in the past--or areabout to do--has been done already. I've lain awake nights, mister, thinking about all these things and there is no answer, believe me, except the one I give you. The question which faces ushere is an immediate one. Do we give all this up or do we keep onwatching that Wisconsin farm, waiting for them to come back? Do wekeep on trying to find, independently, the process or formula ormethod that Adams found for traveling in time?"

"We've had no luck in our research so far, General, " said thequiet physicist who sat at the table's end. "If you were not sosure and if the evidence were not so convincing that it had beendone by Adams, I'd say flatly that it is impossible. We have noapproach which holds any hope at all. What we've done so far, youmight best describe as flounder. But if Adams turned the trick, itmust be possible. There may be, as a matter of fact, more waysthan one. We'd like to keep on trying. "

"Not one word of blame has been put on you for your failure, " thechairman told the physicist. "That you could do it seems to bemore than can be humanly expected. If Adams did it--_if_ he did, Isay--it must have been simply that he blundered on an avenue ofresearch no other man has thought of. "

"You will recall, " said the general, "that the research program, even from the first, was thought of strictly as a gamble. Our onehope was, and must remain, that they will return. "

"It would have been so much simpler all around, " the statedepartment man said, "if Adams had patented his method. "

The general raged at him. "And had it published, all neat andorderly, in the patent office records so that anyone who wanted itcould look it up and have it?"

"We can be most sincerely thankful, " said the chairman, "that hedid not patent it. "

VI

The helicopter would never fly again, but the time unit wasintact. 

Which didn't mean that it would work. 

They held a powwow at their camp site. It had been, they decided, simpler to move the camp than to remove the body of Old Buster. Sothey had shifted at dawn, leaving the old mastodon still sprawledacross the helicopter. 

In a day or two, they knew, the great bones would be cleanlypicked by the carrion birds, the lesser cats, the wolves and foxesand the little skulkers. 

Getting the time unit out of the helicopter had been quite achore, but they finally had managed and now Adams sat with itcradled in his lap. 

"The worst of it, " he told them, "is that I can't test it. There'sno way to. You turn it on and it works or it doesn't work. Youcan't know till you try. "

"That's something we can't help, " Cooper replied. "The problem, seems to me, is how we're going to use it without the whirlybird. "

"We have to figure out some way to get up in the air, " said Adams. "We don't want to take the chance of going up into the twentiethcentury and arriving there about six feet underground. "

"Common sense says that we should be higher here than up ahead, "Hudson pointed out. "These hills have stood here since Jurassictimes. They probably were a good deal higher then and haveweathered down. That weathering still should be going on. So weshould be higher here than in the twentieth century--not much, perhaps, but higher. "

"Did anyone ever notice what the altimeter read?" asked Cooper. 

"I don't believe I did, " Adams admitted. 

"It wouldn't tell you, anyhow, " Hudson declared. "It would justgive our height then and now--and we were moving, remember--andwhat about air pockets and relative atmosphere density and all therest?"

Cooper looked as discouraged as Hudson felt. 

"How does this sound?" asked Adams. "We'll build a platform twelvefeet high. That certainly should be enough to clear us and yetsmall enough to stay within the range of the unit's force-field. "

"And what if we're two feet higher here?" Hudson pointed out. 

"A fall of fourteen feet wouldn't kill a man unless he's plainunlucky. "

"It might break some bones. "

"So it might break some bones. You want to stay here or take achance on a broken leg?"

"All right, if you put it that way. A platform, you say. Aplatform out of what?"

"Timber. There's lot of it. We just go out and cut some logs. "

"A twelve-foot log is heavy. And how are we going to get that biga log uphill?"

"We drag it. "

"We try to, you mean. "

"Maybe we could fix up a cart, " said Adams, after thinking amoment. 

"Out of what?" Cooper asked. 

"Rollers, maybe. We could cut some and roll the logs up here. "

"That would work on level ground, " Hudson said. "It wouldn't workto roll a log uphill. It would get away from us. Someone might getkilled. "

"The logs would have to be longer than twelve feet, anyhow, "Cooper put in. "You'd have to set them in a hole and that takesaway some footage. "

"Why not the tripod principle?" Hudson offered. "Fasten three logsat the top and raise them. "

"That's a gin-pole, a primitive derrick. It'd still have to belonger than twelve feet. Fifteen, sixteen, maybe. And how are wegoing to hoist three sixteen-foot logs? We'd need a block andtackle. "

"There's another thing, " said Cooper. "Part of those logs mightjust be beyond the effective range of the force-field. Part ofthem would have to--_have to_, mind you--move in time and partcouldn't. That would set up a stress.... "

"Another thing about it, " added Hudson, "is that we'd travel withthe logs. I don't want to come out in another time with a bunch oflogs flying all around me. "

"Cheer up, " Adams told them. "Maybe the unit won't work, anyhow. "

VII

The general sat alone in his office and held his head between hishands. The fools, he thought, the goddam knuckle-headed fools! Whycouldn't they see it as clearly as he did?

For fifteen years now, as head of Project Mastodon, he had livedwith it night and day and he could see all the possibilitiesas clearly as if they had been actual fact. Not militarypossibilities alone, although as a military man, he naturallywould think of those first. 

The hidden bases, for example, located within the very strongholdsof potential enemies--within, yet centuries removed in time. Manycenturies removed and only seconds distant. 

He could see it all: The materialization of the fleets; the swift, devastating blow, then the instantaneous retreat into thefastnesses of the past. Terrific destruction, but not a ship lostnor a man. 

Except that if you had the bases, you need never strike the blow. If you had the bases and let the enemy know you had them, therewould never be the provocation. 

And on the home front, you'd have air-raid shelters that would beeffective. You'd evacuate your population not in space, but time. You'd have the sure and absolute defense against any kind ofbombing--fission, fusion, bacteriological or whatever else thelabs had in stock. 

And if the worst should come--which it never would with a setuplike that--you'd have a place to which the entire nation couldretreat, leaving to the enemy the empty, blasted cities and thelethally dusted countryside. 

Sanctuary--that had been what Hudson had offered thethen-secretary of state fifteen years ago--and the idiot hadfrozen up with the insult of it and had Hudson thrown out. 

And if war did not come, think of the living space and the vastnew opportunities--not the least of which would be the opportunityto achieve peaceful living in a virgin world, where the oldhatreds would slough off and new concepts have a chance to grow. 

He wondered where they were, those three who had gone back intotime. Dead, perhaps. Run down by a mastodon. Or stalked by tigers. Or maybe done in by warlike tribesmen. No, he kept forgettingthere weren't any in that era. Or trapped in time, unable to getback, condemned to exile in an alien time. Or maybe, he thought, just plain disgusted. And he couldn't blame them if they were. 

Or maybe--let's be fantastic about this--sneaking in colonistsfrom some place other than the watched Wisconsin farm, building upin actuality the nation they had claimed to be. 

They had to get back to the present soon or Project Mastodon wouldbe killed entirely. Already the research program had been haltedand if something didn't happen quickly, the watch that was kept onthe Wisconsin farm would be called off. 

"And if they do that, " said the general, "I know just what I'lldo. "

He got up and strode around the room. 

"By God, " he said, "I'll show 'em!"

VIII

It had taken ten full days of back-breaking work to build thepyramid. They'd hauled the rocks from the creek bed half a mileaway and had piled them, stone by rolling stone, to the height ofa full twelve feet. It took a lot of rocks and a lot of patience, for as the pyramid went up, the base naturally kept broadeningout. 

But now all was finally ready. 

Hudson sat before the burned-out campfire and held his blisteredhands before him. 

It should work, he thought, better than the logs--and lessdangerous. 

Grab a handful of sand. Some trickled back between your fingers, but most stayed in your grasp. That was the principle of thepyramid of stones. When--and if--the time machine should work, most of the rocks would go along. 

Those that didn't go would simply trickle out and do no harm. There'd be no stress or strain to upset the working of theforce-field. 

And if the time unit didn't work?

Or if it did?

This was the end of the dream, thought Hudson, no matter how youlooked at it. 

For even if they did get back to the twentieth century, therewould be no money and with the film lost and no other taken toreplace it, they'd have no proof they had traveled back beyond thedawn of history--back almost to the dawn of Man. 

Although how far you traveled would have no significance. An houror a million years would be all the same; if you could span thehour, you could span the million years. And if you could go backthe million years, it was within your power to go back to thefirst tick of eternity, the first stir of time across the face ofemptiness and nothingness--back to that initial instant whennothing as yet had happened or been planned or thought, when allthe vastness of the Universe was a new slate waiting the firstchalk stroke of destiny. 

Another helicopter would cost thirty thousand dollars--and theydidn't even have the money to buy the tractor that they needed tobuild the stockade. 

There was no way to borrow. You couldn't walk into a bank and sayyou wanted thirty thousand to take a trip back to the Old StoneAge. 

You still could go to some industry or some university or thegovernment and if you could persuade them you had something on theball--why, then, they might put up the cash after cuttingthemselves in on just about all of the profits. And, naturally, they'd run the show because it was their money and all you haddone was the sweating and the bleeding. 

"There's one thing that still bothers me, " said Cooper, breakingthe silence. "We spent a lot of time picking our spot so we'd missthe barn and house and all the other buildings.... "

"Don't tell me the windmill!" Hudson cried. 

"No. I'm pretty sure we're clear of that. But the way I figure, we're right astraddle that barbed-wire fence at the south end ofthe orchard. "

"If you want, we could move the pyramid over twenty feet or so. "

Cooper groaned. "I'll take my chances with the fence. " Adams gotto his feet, the time unit tucked underneath his arm. "Come on, you guys. It's time to go. "

They climbed the pyramid gingerly and stood unsteadily at its top. 

Adams shifted the unit around, clasped it to his chest. 

"Stand around close, " he said, "and bend your knees a little. Itmay be quite a drop. "

"Go ahead, " said Cooper. "Press the button. "

Adams pressed the button. 

Nothing happened. 

The unit didn't work. 

IX

The chief of Central Intelligence was white-lipped when hefinished talking. 

"You're sure of your information?" asked the President. 

"Mr. President, " said the CIA chief, "I've never been more sure ofanything in my entire life. "

The President looked at the other two who were in the room, aquestion in his eyes. 

The JCS chairman said, "It checks, sir, with everything we know. "

"But it's incredible!" the President said. 

"They're afraid, " said the CIA chief. "They lie awake nights. They've become convinced that we're on the verge of traveling intime. They've tried and failed, but they think we're near success. To their way of thinking, they've got to hit us now or never, because once we actually get time travel, they know their number'sup. "

"But we dropped Project Mastodon entirely almost three years ago. It's been all of ten years since we stopped the research. It wastwenty-five years ago that Hudson--"

"That makes no difference, sir. They're convinced we dropped theproject publicly, but went underground with it. That would be thekind of strategy they could understand. "

The President picked up a pencil and doodled on a pad. 

"Who was that old general, " he asked, "the one who raised so muchfuss when we dropped the project? I remember I was in the Senatethen. He came around to see me. "

"Bowers, sir, " said the JCS chairman. 

"That's right. What became of him?"

"Retired. "

"Well, I guess it doesn't make any difference now. " He doodledsome more and finally said, "Gentlemen, it looks like this is it. How much time did you say we had?"

"Not more than ninety days, sir. Maybe as little as thirty. "

The President looked up at the JCS chairman. 

"We're as ready, " said the chairman, "as we will ever be. We canhandle them--I think. There will, of course, be some--"

"I know, " said the President. 

"Could we bluff?" asked the secretary of state, speaking quietly. "I know it wouldn't stick, but at least we might buy some time. "

"You mean hint that we have time travel?"

The secretary nodded. 

"It wouldn't work, " said the CIA chief tiredly. "If we really hadit, there'd be no question then. They'd become exceedinglywell-mannered, even neighborly, if they were sure we had it. "

"But we haven't got it, " said the President gloomily. 

X

The two hunters trudged homeward late in the afternoon, with adeer slung from a pole they carried on their shoulders. Theirbreath hung visibly in the air as they walked along, for the frosthad come and any day now, they knew, there would be snow. 

"I'm worried about Wes, " said Cooper, breathing heavily. "He'staking this too hard. We got to keep an eye on him. "

"Let's take a rest, " panted Hudson. 

They halted and lowered the deer to the ground. 

"He blames himself too much, " said Cooper. He wiped his sweatyforehead. "There isn't any need to. All of us walked into thiswith our eyes wide open. "

"He's kidding himself and he knows it, but it gives him somethingto go on. As long as he can keep busy with all his putteringaround, he'll be all right. "

"He isn't going to repair the time unit, Chuck. "

"I know he isn't. And he knows it, too. He hasn't got the tools orthe materials. Back in the workshop, he might have a chance, buthere he hasn't. "

"It's rough on him. "

"It's rough on all of us. "

"Yes, but we didn't get a brainstorm that marooned two old friendsin this tail end of nowhere. And we can't make him swallow it whenwe say that it's okay, we don't mind at all. "

"That's a lot to swallow, Johnny. "

"What's going to happen to us, Chuck?"

"We've got ourselves a place to live and there's lots to eat. Saveour ammo for the big game--a lot of eating for each bullet--andtrap the smaller animals. "

"I'm wondering what will happen when the flour and all the otherstuff is gone. We don't have too much of it because we alwaysfigured we could bring in more. "

"We'll live on meat, " said Hudson. "We got bison by the million. The plains Indians lived on them alone. And in the spring, we'llfind roots and in the summer berries. And in the fall, we'llharvest a half-dozen kinds of nuts. "

"Some day our ammo will be gone, no matter how careful we are withit. "

"Bows and arrows. Slingshots. Spears. "

"There's a lot of beasts here I wouldn't want to stand up to withnothing but a spear. "

"We won't stand up to them. We'll duck when we can and run when wecan't duck. Without our guns, we're no lords of creation--not inthis place. If we're going to live, we'll have to recognize thatfact. "

"And if one of us gets sick or breaks a leg or--"

"We'll do the best we can. Nobody lives forever. "

But they were talking around the thing that really bothered them, Hudson told himself--each of them afraid to speak the thoughtaloud. 

They'd live, all right, so far as food, shelter and clothing wereconcerned. And they'd live most of the time in plenty, for thiswas a fat and open-handed land and a man could make an easyliving. 

But the big problem--the one they were afraid to talk about--wastheir emptiness of purpose. To live, they had to find some meaningin a world without society. 

A man cast away on a desert isle could always live for hope, buthere there was no hope. A Robinson Crusoe was separated from hisfellow-humans by, at the most, a few thousand miles. Here theywere separated by a hundred and fifty thousand years. 

Wes Adams was the lucky one so far. Even playing histhousand-to-one shot, he still held tightly to a purpose, feebleas it might be--the hope that he could repair the time machine. 

We don't need to watch him now, thought Hudson. The time we'llhave to watch is when he is forced to admit he can't fix themachine. 

And both Hudson and Cooper had been kept sane enough, for therehad been the cabin to be built and the winter's supply of wood tocut and the hunting to be done. 

But then there would come a time when all the chores were finishedand there was nothing left to do. 

"You ready to go?" asked Cooper. 

"Sure. All rested now, " said Hudson. 

They hoisted the pole to their shoulders and started off again. 

Hudson had lain awake nights thinking of it and all the thoughtshad been dead ends. 

One could write a natural history of the Pleistocene, completewith photographs and sketches, and it would be a pointless thingto do, because no future scientist would ever have a chance toread it. 

Or they might labor to build a memorial, a vast pyramid, perhaps, which would carry a message forward across fifteenhundred centuries, snatching with bare hands at a semblance ofimmortality. But if they did, they would be working against thesure and certain knowledge that it all would come to naught, forthey knew in advance that no such pyramid existed in historictime. 

Or they might set out to seek contemporary Man, hiking across fourthousand miles of wilderness to Bering Strait and over into Asia. And having found contemporary Man cowering in his caves, theymight be able to help him immeasurably along the road to his greatinheritance. Except that they'd never make it and even if theydid, contemporary Man undoubtedly would find some way to do themin and might eat them in the bargain. 

They came out of the woods and there was the cabin, just a hundredyards away. It crouched against the hillside above the spring, with the sweep of grassland billowing beyond it to the slate-grayskyline. A trickle of smoke came up from the chimney and they sawthe door was open. 

"Wes oughtn't to leave it open that way, " said Cooper. "No tellingwhen a bear might decide to come visiting. "

"Hey, Wes!" yelled Hudson. 

But there was no sign of him. 

Inside the cabin, a white sheet of paper lay on the table top. Hudson snatched it up and read it, with Cooper at his shoulder. 

 Dear guys--I don't want to get your hopes up again and have you disappointed. But I think I may have found the trouble. I'm going to try it out. If it doesn't work, I'll come back and burn this note and never say a word. But if you find the note, you'll know it worked and I'll be back to get you. Wes. 

Hudson crumpled the note in his hand. "The crazy fool!"

"He's gone off his rocker, " Cooper said. "He just thought.... "

The same thought struck them both and they bolted for the door. Atthe corner of the cabin, they skidded to a halt and stood there, staring at the ridge above them. 

The pyramid of rocks they'd built two months ago was gone!

XI

The crash brought Gen. Leslie Bowers (ret. ) up out of bed--abouttwo feet out of bed--old muscles tense, white mustache bristling. 

Even at his age, the general was a man of action. He flipped thecovers back, swung his feet out to the floor and grabbed theshotgun leaning against the wall. 

Muttering, he blundered out of the bedroom, marched across thedining room and charged into the kitchen. There, beside the door, he snapped on the switch that turned on the floodlights. Hepractically took the door off its hinges getting to the stoop andhe stood there, bare feet gripping the planks, nightshirtbillowing in the wind, the shotgun poised and ready. 

"What's going on out there?" he bellowed. 

There was a tremendous pile of rocks resting where he'd parked hiscar. One crumpled fender and a drunken headlight peeped out of therubble. 

A man was clambering carefully down the jumbled stones, making adetour to dodge the battered fender. 

The general pulled back the hammer of the gun and fought tocontrol himself. 

The man reached the bottom of the pile and turned around to facehim. The general saw that he was hugging something tightly to hischest. 

"Mister, " the general told him, "your explanation better be a goodone. That was a brand-new car. And this was the first time I wasset for a night of sleep since my tooth quit aching. "

The man just stood and looked at him. 

"Who in thunder are you?" roared the general. 

The man walked slowly forward. He stopped at the bottom of thestoop. 

"My name is Wesley Adams, " he said. "I'm--"

"Wesley Adams!" howled the general. "My God, man, where have youbeen all these years?"

"Well, I don't imagine you'll believe me, but the fact is.... "

"We've been waiting for you. For twenty-five long years! Or, rather, _I've_ been waiting for you. Those other idiots gave up. I've waited right here for you, Adams, for the last three years, ever since they called off the guard. "

Adams gulped. "I'm sorry about the car. You see, it was thisway.... "

The general, he saw, was beaming at him fondly. 

"I had faith in you, " the general said. 

He waved the shotgun by way of invitation. "Come on in. I have acall to make. "

Adams stumbled up the stairs. 

"Move!" the general ordered, shivering. "On the double! You wantme to catch my death of cold out here?"

Inside, he fumbled for the lights and turned them on. He laid theshotgun across the kitchen table and picked up the telephone. 

"Give me the White House at Washington, " he said. "Yes, I said theWhite House.... The President? Naturally he's the one I want totalk to.... Yes, it's all right. He won't mind my calling him. "

"Sir, " said Adams tentatively. 

The general looked up. "What is it, Adams? Go ahead and say it. "

"Did you say _twenty-five_ years?"

"That's what I said. What were you doing all that time?"

Adams grasped the table and hung on. "But it wasn't.... "

"Yes, " said the general to the operator. "Yes, I'll wait. "

He held his hand over the receiver and looked inquiringly atAdams. "I imagine you'll want the same terms as before. "

"Terms?"

"Sure. Recognition. Point Four Aid. Defense pact. "

"I suppose so, " Adams said. 

"You got these saps across the barrel, " the general told himhappily. "You can get anything you want. You rate it, too, afterwhat you've done and the bonehead treatment you got--butespecially for not selling out. "

XII

The night editor read the bulletin just off the teletype. 

"Well, what do you know!" he said. "We just recognizedMastodonia. "

He looked at the copy chief. 

"Where the hell is Mastodonia?" he asked. 

The copy chief shrugged. "Don't ask me. You're the brains in thisjoint. "

"Well, let's get a map for the next edition, " said the nighteditor. 

XIII

Tabby, the saber-tooth, dabbed playfully at Cooper with his mightypaw. 

Cooper kicked him in the ribs--an equally playful gesture. 

Tabby snarled at him. 

"Show your teeth at me, will you!" said Cooper. "Raised you from akitten and that's the gratitude you show. Do it just once more andI'll belt you in the chops. "

Tabby lay down blissfully and began to wash his face. 

"Some day, " warned Hudson, "that cat will miss a meal and that'sthe day you're it. "

"Gentle as a dove, " Cooper assured him. "Wouldn't hurt a fly. "

"Well, one thing about it, nothing dares to bother us with thatmonstrosity around. "

"Best watchdog there ever was. Got to have something to guard allthis stuff we've got. When Wes gets back, we'll be millionaires. All those furs and ginseng and the ivory. "

"_If_ he gets back. "

"He'll be back. Quit your worrying. "

"But it's been five years, " Hudson protested. 

"He'll be back. Something happened, that's all. He's probablyworking on it right now. Could be that he messed up the timesetting when he repaired the unit or it might have been knockedout of kilter when Buster hit the helicopter. That would take awhile to fix. I don't worry that he won't come back. What I can'tfigure out is why did he go and leave us?"

"I've told you, " Hudson said. "He was afraid it wouldn't work. "

"There wasn't any need to be scared of that. We never would havelaughed at him. "

"No. Of course we wouldn't. "

"Then what _was_ he scared of?" Cooper asked. 

"If the unit failed and we knew it failed, Wes was afraid we'd tryto make him see how hopeless and insane it was. And he knew we'dprobably convince him and then all his hope would be gone. And hewanted to hang onto that, Johnny. He wanted to hang onto his hopeeven when there wasn't any left. "

"That doesn't matter now, " said Cooper. "What counts is that he'llcome back. I can feel it in my bones. "

And here's another case, thought Hudson, of hope begging to beallowed to go on living. 

God, he thought, I wish I could be that blind!

"Wes is working on it right now, " said Cooper confidently. 

XIV

He was. Not he alone, but a thousand others, working desperately, knowing that the time was short, working not alone for two mentrapped in time, but for the peace they all had dreamedabout--that the whole world had yearned for through the ages. 

For to be of any use, it was imperative that they could zero inthe time machines they meant to build as an artilleryman wouldzero in a battery of guns, that each time machine would take itsoccupants to the same instant of the past, that their operationwould extend over the same period of time, to the exact second. 

It was a problem of control and calibration--starting with aprototype that was calibrated, as its finest adjustment, for jumpsof 50, 000 years. 

Project Mastodon was finally under way.