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April 26, 2022 • 69 mins
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(00:00):
Project Mastodon by Clifford D. Simac, the Chief of Protocol, said mister
Hudson of a Macedonia. The Secretaryof State held out his hand. I'm
glad to see you, mister Hudson. I understand you've been here several times.

(00:23):
That's right, said Hudson. Ihad a hard time making your people
believe I was in earnest and areyou, mister Hudson, believe me,
sir. I would not try tofool you. And this Mastodonia, said
the Secretary, reaching down to tapthe document upon his desk. You will

(00:44):
pardon me, but I've never heardof it. It's a new nation,
Hudson explained, but quite legitimate.We have a constitution, a democratic form
of government, dually elected officials,and a code of laws. We are
a free, peace loving people,and we are zest of a vast amount
of natural resources. And please tellme, sir, interrupted the secretary,

(01:07):
just where are you located. Technicallyyou are our nearest neighbors. But that
is ridiculous, exploded protocol not atall, insisted Hudson. If you will
give me a moment, mister secretary, I have considerable evidence. He brushed
the fingers of protocol off his sleeveand stepped forward to the desk, laying

(01:29):
down the portfolio he carried. Goahead, mister Hudson, said the secretary.
Why don't we all sit down andbe comfortable while we talk this over.
You have my credentials. I seenow here is a proposite. I
have a document signed by a certainWesley Adams. He is our first president,

(01:49):
said Hudson, our George Washington.You might say, what is the
purpose of this visit, mister Hudson. We'd like to estab diplomatic relations.
We think it would be to ourmutual benefit. After all, we are
a sister republic in perfect sympathy withyour policies and aims. We'd like to
negotiate trade agreements, and we'd begrateful for some point for aid. The

(02:15):
Secretary smiled naturally, who doesn't Weare prepared to offer something in return,
Hudson told him stiffly. For onething, we could offer sanctuary. Sanctuary
I understand, said Hudson that inthe present state of international tensions, a
fool proof sanctuary is not something tobe sneezed at. The Secretary turned stone

(02:39):
cold. I'm an extremely busy man. Protocol to Hudson firmly by the arm
out you go. General Leslie Bowersput in a call to State and got
the Secretary. I don't like tobother you, herb, he said,
but there's something I want to check. Maybe you can help helped me.

(03:00):
Glad to help you if I can. There's a fellow hanging around out here
at the Pentagon trying to get into see me. Said I was the
only one he'd talked to. Butyou know how it is, I certainly
do name of Houston or Hudson orsomething like that. He was here just
an hour ago, said the Secretary. Crackpot sort of fellow. He's gone

(03:24):
now. Yes, I don't thinkhe'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 get from
him? I told you a crackpot. I suppose he is. He said

(03:45):
something to one of the colonels thatgot me worrying. Can't pass up anything,
you know, not in the dirtytricks department, even if it's crackpot.
These days, you got to havea look at it. He offered.
Sanctuary, said the Secretary, indignantly. Can you imagine that he's been
making the rounds? I guess theGeneral said he was over at AEC,

(04:06):
told them some sort of tale aboutknowing where there were vast geranium deposits.
It was the AEC that told mehe was heading your way. We get
them all the time. Usually wecan ease them out. This Hudson was
just a little better than most ofthem. He got in to see me.
He told the colonels something about havinga plan that would enable us to

(04:28):
establish secret bases anywhere we wished,even in the territory of potential enemies.
I know it sounds crazy, forgetit less. You're probably right, said
the General, But this idea sendsme. Can you imagine the look in
their iron curtained faces, the scaredlittle government clerk darting conspiratorial glances all about

(04:50):
him. Brought the portfolio to theFBI. I found it in a bar
down the street. He told theman who took him in tow been going
there for years, and I foundthis portfolio laying in the booth. I
saw the man who must have leftit there, and I tried to find
him later, but I couldn't.How do you know he left it there.

(05:12):
I just figured he did. Heleft the booth just as I came
in, and it was sort ofdark in there, and it took a
minute to see this thing laying there. You see, I always take the
same booth every day, and Joesees me come in and he brings me
the usual. And you saw thisman leave the booth you usually sit in.
That's right. Then you saw theportfolio. Yes, sir, you

(05:36):
tried to find the man, thinkingit must have been his. That's exactly
what I did. But by thetime you went to look for him,
he had disappeared. That's the wayit was. Now, tell me why
did you bring it here? Whydidn't you turn it into the management so
the man could come back and claimit. Well, sir, it was

(06:00):
like this. I had a drinkor two and I was wondering all the
time what was in that portfolio?So finally I took a peek, and
and what you saw decided you tobring it here to us. That's right,
I saw. Don't tell me whatyou saw, give me your name
and address, and don't say anythingabout this. You understand that we're grateful

(06:21):
to you for thinking of us,But we'd rather you said nothing. Mom's
the word, the little clerk assuredhim. Full of vast importance, the
FBI phoned doctor Ambrose Amberley, Smithsonianexpert on paleontology. We've got something,
doctor that we'd like you to havea look at a lot of movie film.

(06:44):
I'll be most happy to I'll comedown as soon as I get clear
and the week. Perhaps this isvery urgent, doctor. Damnedest thing you
ever saw, big shaggy elephants andtigers with teeth down to their necks.
There's a beaver the size of abear. Fakes, said Amberley, disgusted.
Clever gadgets, camera angles. That'swhat we thought at first. But

(07:08):
there are no gadgets, no cameraangles. This is the real McCoy.
I'm on my way, the paleontologistsaid, hanging up snyde item in smug
smart alec gossip column. Saucers arepasse at the Pentagon. There's another mystery
that's got the high brass, veryhigh. Chapter two. President Wesley Adams

(07:35):
and Secretary of Saint John Cooper satglumly under a tree in the capital of
Macedonia and waited for the Ambassador Extraordinaryto return I tell you wes, said
Cooper, who under various pseudonyms,was also the Secretaries of Commerce, Treasury,
and War. This is a crazything we did. What if what

(07:56):
if Chuck can't get back, theymight throw him in jail, or something
might happen into the time unit orthe helicopter. We should have gone along.
We had to stay. Adams said, you know what would happen to
this camp and our supplies if weweren't around here to guard them. The
only thing that's given us any troubleis that old Masta don If he comes

(08:16):
around again, I'm going to takea skillet and bang him in the brisket.
That isn't the only reason, either, said President Adams. And you
know it. We can't go desertingthis nation now that we've created it.
We have to keep possession. Justplanning a flag and saying it's ours wouldn't
be enough. We might be calledupon for proof that we've established residence,

(08:39):
something like the old homestead laws.You know, we'll establish residents, sure
enough, growled Secretary Cooper. Ifsomething happens to that time unit or the
helicopter, do you think they'll doit, Johnny, who do what the
United States. Do you think they'llrecognize us? Not? They know who

(09:00):
we are. That's what I'm afraidof. Chuck will talk them into it.
He can talk the skin right offa cat. Sometimes I think we're
going at this wrong. Sure,Chuck's got the long range view, and
I suppose it's best. But maybewhat we ought to do is grab a
good, fast profit and get outof here. We could take in hunting
parties at ten thousand ahead, ormaybe we could lease it to a movie

(09:24):
company. We can do all thatand do it legally and with full protection.
Cooper told him, if we canget ourselves recognized as a sovereign nation,
if we negotiate a mutual defense pact, no one would dare get hostile
because we could squawk to Uncle Sam. All you say is true. Adams
agreed. But there are going tobe questions. It isn't just a matter

(09:46):
of walking into Washington and getting recognition. They'll want to know about us,
such as our population. What ifChuck has to tell them it's a total
of three persons. Cooper shook hishand. He wouldn't answer that way West,
He'd duck the question or give themsome diplomatic dumble talk. After all,

(10:07):
how can we be sure there areonly three of us? We took
over the whole continent. Remember,you know well enough, Johnny, there
are no other humans back here inNorth America. The farthest back any scientist
will place the migration from Asia isthirty thousand years. They haven't got here
yet. Maybe we should have doneit differently, mused Cooper. Maybe we

(10:30):
should have included the whole world inour proclamation, not just the continent.
That way we could claim quite apopulation. It wouldn't have held water.
Even as it is, we wenta little further than precedent allows. The
old explorers usually laid claim to certainwater sheds. They'd find a river and
laid claim to all the territory drainedby the river. They didn't go grabbing

(10:52):
off whole continents. That's because theywere never sure of exactly what they had
said, Cooper, we are wehave what you might call the advantage of
pine sight. He leaned back againstthe tree and stared across the land.
It was a pretty place, hethought, the rolling ridges covered by vast

(11:13):
grazing areas and small groves. Theforest covered ten mile River valley, and
everywhere one looked the grazing herds ofmastodon, giant bison, and wild horses,
with the less gregarious fauna scattered hitand miss. Old Buster, the
troublesome Mastodon, a lone bull whichhad been probably run out of a herd

(11:35):
by a younger rival, stood atthe edge of a grove a quarter mile
away. He had his head downand was curling and uncurling his trunk in
an aimless sort of way, whilehe teetered slowly in a lazy, crazy
fashioned by lifting first one foot andthen another. The old cuss was lonely,
Cooper told himself that's why he hungaround like a homeless dog, except

(12:00):
that he was too big and awkwardto have much pet appeal, and more
than likely his temper was unstable.The afternoon sun was pleasantly warm, and
the air, it seemed to Cooper, was the freshest he had ever smelled.
It was altogether a very pleasant place, an Indian summer sort of land,
ideal for a Sunday picnic or acamping trip. The breeze was just

(12:24):
enough to float out from its flagstaffbefore the tent. The national banner of
Macedonia, a red rampant mastodon upona field of green, you know,
Johnny, said Adams. There's onething that worries me a lot. If
we're going to base our claims onprecedent, we may be way off base.
The old explorers always claimed their discoveriesfor their nations or their king,

(12:46):
never for themselves. The principle wasentirely different. Cooper told him. Nobody
ever did anything for himself in thosedays. Everyone was always under someone else's
protection. The explorers or were financedby their governments, or we're sponsored by
them, or operated under a royalcharter or a patent with us. It's

(13:07):
different. Ours is a private enterprise. You dreamed up the time unit and
built it. The three of uschipped in to buy the helicopter. We've
paid all of our expenses out ofour own pockets. We never got a
dime from anyone. What we foundis ours. I hope you're right,
said Adams, uneasily. Old Busterhad moved out from the grove and was

(13:31):
shuffling warily toward the camp. Adamspicked up the rifle that lay across his
knees. Wait. Cooper said sharply, maybe he's just bluffing. It would
be ashamed to plaster him. He'ssuch a nice old guy. Adams half
raised the rifle. I'll give himthree steps more, he announced, I've
had enough of him. Suddenly,a roar burst out of the air just

(13:54):
above their heads. The two leapedto their feet. It's Chuck, Cooper
yelled, he's back. The helicoptermade a half turn of the camp and
came rapidly to earth, trumpeting withterror. Old Buster was a dwindling dot
far down the grassy ridge. Chapterthree. They built the nightly fires circling

(14:20):
the camp to keep out the animals. It'll be the death of me yet,
said Adams, wearily cutting all thiswood. We have to get to
work on that stockade, Cooper said. We've fooled around long enough. Some
night fire or no fire, aherd of mastodon will come busting in here,
and if they ever hit the helicopter, we'll be dead ducks. It

(14:41):
wouldn't take more than just five secondsto turn us into Robinson Crusoes of the
Pleistocene. Well, now that thisrecognition thing has petered out on us,
said Adams, maybe we can getdown to business. Trouble is, Cooper
answered, We spent about the lastof our money on chainsaw to cut this
wood, and on Chuck's trip toWashington to build a stockade. We need

(15:05):
a tractor. We'd kill ourselves ifwe'd tried to rastle that many logs bare
handed. Maybe we could catch someof those horses running around out there.
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

(15:26):
ambassador, extraordinarily bluntly. Cooper squatteddown beside the coals of the cooking fire
and twirled the spit. Upon thespit were three grouse and a half dozen
quail. The huge coffee pot wassending out a nose tingling aroma. Biscuits
were baking in the reflector. We'vebeen here six weeks, he said,
and we're still living in a tentand cooking on an open fire. We'd

(15:50):
better get busy and get something donethe stockade first, said Adams. And
that means a tractor. We coulduse the helicopter. Do you want to
take that chance? That's our getawayonce something happens to it. I guess
not, Cooper admitted, gulping.We could use some of that point for

(16:11):
aid right now, commented Adams.They threw me out, said Hudson,
everywhere I went, sooner or laterthey got around to throwing me out.
They were real organized about it.Well, we tried, Adams said.
And to top it off, addedHudson, I had to go and lose

(16:32):
all that film, and now we'llhave to waste our time taking more of
it. Personally, I don't everwant to let another saber tooth get that
close to me while I hold thecamera. You didn't have a thing to
worry about, Adams objected. Johnnywas right there behind you with the gun.
Yeah, with the muzzle about afoot from my head. When he

(16:52):
let go, I stopped him,didn't I demanded Cooper with his head right
in my lap. Maybe we won'thave to take any more pictures, Adams
suggested, we'll have to, Coopersaid. There are sportsmen up ahead who'd
fork over ten thousand bucks easy fortwo weeks of hunting here. But before

(17:14):
we could sell them on it,we'd have to show them movies. That
scene with the sabertooth would sinch itif it didn't scare them off. Hudson
pointed out the last few feet showednothing but the inside of his throat.
Ex Ambassador Hudson looked unhappy. Idon't like the whole setup. As soon
as we bring someone in, thenews is shut a leak, and once

(17:36):
the word gets out, there'll beguys lying in ambush for us, maybe
even nations, scheming to steal theknow how legally or violently. That's what
scares me the most about those filmsI lost. Someone will find them and
they may guess what it's all about, but I'm hoping they either won't believe
it or can't manage to trace us. We could swear the hunting parties to

(17:59):
secret, said Cooper. How coulda sportsman keep still about the mounted head
of a saber tooth or a recordpiece of ivory? And the same thing
would apply to anyone we approached.Some university could raise dough to send a
team of scientists back here, anda movie company would cough up plenty to
use this place as a location fora caveman epic. But it wouldn't be

(18:21):
worth a thing to either of themif they couldn't tell about it. Now,
if we could have gotten recognition asa nation, we'd have been all
said. We could make our ownlaws and regulations and be able to enforce
them. We could bring in settlersand establish trade. We could exploit our
natural resources. It would all belegal and aboveboard. We could tell who

(18:42):
we were and where we were andwhat we had to offer. We aren't
lacked yet, said Adams. There'sa lot we can do. Those river
hills are covered with ginsing. Wecan each dig a dozen pounds a day.
There's good money in the route ginsingroute. Cooper said, it's peanuts.
We need big money, or wecould trap, offered Adams. The

(19:07):
places alive with beaver. Have youtaken a good look at those beaver.
They're about the size of a SaintBernard. All the better think how much
just one pelt would bring. Nodealer would believe that it was a beaver.
He'd think you were trying to pulla fast one on him. And
there are only a few states thatallow beaver to be trapped to sell the

(19:27):
pelts. Even if you could,you'd have to take out licenses in each
of those states. Those mastodon carrya lot of ivory, said Cooper,
And if we wanted to go north, we'd find mammoths that would carry even
more and get socked in the jugfor ivory smuggling. They sat, all

(19:48):
three of them, staring at thefire, not finding anything to say.
The moaning complaint of a giant huntingcat came from somewhere up the river.
Chapter four. Hudson lay in hissleeping bag, staring at the sky.
It bothered him a lot. Therewas not one familiar constellation, not one

(20:10):
star that he could name with anycertainty. This juggling of the stars,
he thought, emphasized more than anythingelse in this ancient land, the vast
gulf of years which lay between himand the earth where he had been or
would be born one hundred and fiftythousand years. Adams had said, give
or take ten thousand. There wasjust no way to know. Later on,

(20:33):
there might be a measurement of thestars in a comparison with their positions
in the twentieth century, might beone way of doing it, But at
the moment any figure could be nomore than a guess. The time machine
was not something that could be testedfor calibration or performance. As a matter
of fact, there was no wayto test it. They had not been
certain, he remembered, the firsttime they had used it, that it

(20:56):
would really work. There had beenno way to find out when it worked,
you knew it worked, and ifit hadn't worked, there would be
no way of knowing beforehand that itwouldn't. Adams had been sure, of
course, but that had been becausehe had absolute reliance in the half mathematical,
half philosophic concepts he had worked out, concepts that neither Hudson nor Cooper

(21:18):
could come close to understanding. Thathad always been the way it had been,
even when they were kids, withWest dreaming up the deals that he
and Johnny carried out. Back inthose days too, they had used time
travel in their play out in Johnny'sbackyard. They had rigged up a time
machine out of a wonderful collection ofsalvage junk, a wooden crate, an

(21:41):
empty five gallon paint pail, abattered coffeemaker or a bunch of discarded copper
tubing, a busted steering wheel,and other odds and ends. In it,
they had traveled back to Indian beforethe white Man Land and Mammoth Land
and dinosaur Land and the slaughter heremembered had been wonderfully appalling, but in

(22:03):
reality it had been much different.There was much more to it than gunning
down the weird fauna that one found. And they should have known there would
be, for they had talked aboutit often. He thought of the bull
session back in university, and thelittle, usually silent kid who sat quietly
in the corner, a law schoolstudent whose last name had been Pritchard.

(22:26):
And after sitting silently for some time, this Pritchard kid had spoken up,
if you guys ever do travel intime, you'll run up against more than
you bargain for. I don't meanthe climate or the terrain or the fauna,
but the economics and the politics.They all jeered at him, Hudson
remembered, and then they had goneon with their talk, and after a

(22:47):
short while the talk had turned towomen, as it always did. He
wondered where that quiet man might besomeday, Hudson told himself, I'll have
to look him up and tell himhe was right. We did it wrong.
He thought. There were so manyother ways we might have done it,
but we'd been so sure and greedy, greedy for the triumph and the

(23:07):
glory, and now there was noeasy way to collect on the verge of
success. They could have sought outhelp, gone to some large industrial concern,
or an educational foundation, or evento the government like historic explorers.
They could have obtained subsidization and sponsorship. Then they would have had protection funds
to do a proper job, andthey need not have operated on their present

(23:32):
shoe string one beaten up helicopter andone time unit. They could have had
several, and at least one standingby in the twentieth century as a rescue
unit should that be necessary. Butthat would have met a bargain, perhaps
a very hard one, and sharingwith someone who had contributed nothing but the
money. And there was more thanmoney in a thing like this. There

(23:53):
were twenty years of dreams and agreat idea in the dedication to that great
idea, years of work and yearsof disappointment, and an almost fanatical refusal
to give up. Even so,thought Hudson. They had figured well enough.
There had been many chances to makeblunders, and they'd made relatively few.

(24:14):
All they lacked in the last analysiswas backing. Take the helicopter,
for example, it was the onesatisfactory vehicle for time traveling. You had
to get up in the air toclear whatever upheavals and subsidences there had been
through geologic ages. The helicopter tookyou up and kept you clear, and
gave you a chance to pick aproper landing place, travel without it,

(24:37):
and granting you were lucky with landsurfaces, you still might materialize in the
heart of some great tree, orend up in a swamp or in the
middle of a herd of startled savagebeasts. A plane would have done as
well, But back in this worldyou couldn't land a plane, or you
couldn't be certain that you could.A helicopter, though, could land almost
anywhere. In the time distance theyhad traveled, they almost certainly had been

(25:03):
lucky, although one could not beentirely sure just how great a part of
it was luck. Wess had feltthat he had not been working as blindly
as it sometimes might appear. Hehad calibrated the unit for jumps of fifty
thousand years. Finer calibration, hehad said, realistically would have to wait
for more developmental work. Using thefifty thousand year calibrations, they had figured

(25:26):
it out. One jump, concedingthat the calibration was correct, would have
landed them at the end of theWisconsin Glacial period, two jumps at its
beginning. The third would set themdown toward the end of the Sangamon Interglacial,
and apparently it had give or taketen thousand years or so. They

(25:47):
had arrived at a time when theclimate did not seem to vary greatly,
either hot or cold. The florawas modern enough to give them a homelike
feeling, the fauna modern and Pleista'sscenic relaxed, and the surface features were
little altered from the twentieth century.The rivers ran along familiar paths, the
hills and bluffs looked much the same. In this corner of the Earth.

(26:11):
At least one hundred and fifty thousandyears had not changed things greatly. Boyhood
dreams, Hudson thought, were wondrous. It was not often that three men
who had daydreamed in their youth couldfollow it out 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

(26:34):
eyes, then opened them again foranother look at the unfamiliar stars. The
east he saw was flushed with silverlight. Soon the moon would rise,
which was good. A man couldkeep a better watch when the moon was
up. He woke suddenly snatched uprightand into full awareness by the morrow chilling
clamor that slashed across the night.The very air seemed curdled by the savage

(26:57):
racket, and for a moment andhe sat numbed by it. Then slowly,
it seemed his brain took the noiseand separated it into two distinct but
intermingled categories, the deadly screaming ofa cat and the maddened trumpeting of a
mastodon. The moon was up,and the countryside was flooded by its light.

(27:18):
Cooper, he saw, was outbeyond the watchfires, standing there and
watching with his rifle ready. Adamswas scrambling out of his sleeping bag,
swearing softly to himself. The cookingfire had burned down to a bed of
modeled coals, but the watchfires stillwere burning, and the helicopter parked within
their circle picked up the glint offlames. It's buster, Adams told him

(27:41):
angrily, I'd know that bellowing ofhis anywhere. He's done nothing but parade
up and down and bellow ever sincewe got here, and now he seems
to have gone out and found himselfa saber tooth. Hudson zipped down his
sleeping bag, grabbed up his rifleand jumped to his feet, following Adams
in a silent rush to where Cooperstood. Cooper motioned at them, don't
break it up. You'll never seethe likes of it again. Adams brought

(28:04):
up his rifle. Cooper knocked downthe barrel. You fool, he shouted,
you want them turning on us.Two hundred yards away stood the mastodon
and on his back the screeching sabertooth. The great beast reared into the air
and came down with a jolt,a bucking to unseat the cat, flailing

(28:25):
the air with his massive trunk,and as he bucked, the cat struck
and struck again with his gleaming teeth, aiming for the spine. Then the
mastodon crashed head downward as if toturn a somersault, rolled and was on
his feet again, closer to themnow than he had been before the huge
cat had sprung off. For amoment the two stood facing one another.

(28:48):
Then the tiger charged, a flowingstreak of motion in the moonlight. Buster
wheeled away, and the cat,leaping hit his shoulder, clawed wildly and
slid off. The mastodon whipped tothe attack, tusks slashing huge feet stamping.
The cat caught a glancing blow byone of the tusks, screamed and
leaped up to land in a spreadeagle fashion upon Buster's head. Maddened with

(29:11):
pain and fright blinded by the tiger'sraking claws, 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 broughthis rifle up and fired. For an
instant, Hudson saw it all asif it were a single scene, motionless,

(29:34):
one frame snatched from a fantastic movieepic, the charging mastodon, with
the tiger lifted, and the soundtrackone great blast of bloodthirsty bedlam. Then
the scene dissolved in a blur ofmotion. He felt his rifle thud against
his shoulder, knowing he had fired, but not hearing the explosion, and
the mastodon was almost on top ofhim, bearing down like some mighty and

(29:57):
remorseless engine of line destruction. Heflung himself to one side, and the
giant brushed past him out of thetail of his eye, he saw the
throne Sabertooth crash to earth within thecircle of watchfires. He brought his rifle
up again and caught the area behindBuster's ear with his sights. He pressed

(30:17):
the trigger. The mastodon staggered,then regained his stride and went rushing on.
He hit one of the watchfires deadcenter and went through it, scattering
coals and burning brands. Then therewas a thud and a screeching clang of
metal. Oh, now, shoutedHudson, rushing forward, they stopped inside
the circle of flames. The helicopterlay tilted at a crazy angle. One

(30:42):
of its rotor blades was crumpled halfacross it, as if he might have
fallen. As he tried to bullhis mad way over it lay the mastodon.
Something crawled across the ground towards them, its spitting, snarling mouth gaping
in the firelight, its back brokenhind eggs, trailing calmly. Without a

(31:02):
word, Adams put a bullet intothe head of the sabertooth. Chapter five.
General Leslie Bowers rose from his chairand paced up and down the room.
He stopped to bang the conference tablewith a knotted fist. You can't
do it, he bawled at them. You can't kill the project. I

(31:23):
know there's something to it. Wecan't give it up. But it's been
ten years, General, said theSecretary of the Army. If they were
coming back, they'd be here bynow. The General stopped his pacing,
stiffened. Who did that little civiliansquirt think he was talking to the military
in that tone of voice. Weknow how you feel about it, General,

(31:48):
said the Chairman of the Joint Chiefsof Staff. I think we all
recognize how deeply you are involved.You've blamed yourself all these years, and
there is no need of it.After all, there may be nothing to
it, Sir, said the General. I know there's something to it.
I thought so at the time,even when no one else did, and
what we've turned up since serves tobear me out. Let's take a look

(32:10):
at these three men of ours.We knew almost nothing of them at the
time, but we know them now. I've traced out their lives from the
time that they were born until theydisappeared, and I might add that,
on the chance it might be alla hoax, we've searched for them for
years and we've found no trace atall. I've talked with those who knew

(32:30):
them, and I've studied their scholasticand military records. I've arrived at the
conclusion that if any three men coulddo it, they were the ones who
could. Adams was the brains,and the other two were the ones who
carried out the things that he dreamedup. Cooper was a bulldog sort of
man who could keep them going.And it would be Hudson who would figure

(32:50):
out the angles. And they knewthe angles, gentlemen. They had it
all doped out. What Hudson triedhere in Washington is substantial proof of that.
But even back in school they werethinking of those angles. I talked
some years ago to a lawyer inNew York name of Pritchard. He told
me that even back in university theytalked of the economic and political problems they

(33:13):
might face if they ever cracked whatthey were working at. Wesley Adams was
one of our brightest young scientific men. His record at the university and his
war work bears that out. Afterthe war, there were at least a
dozen jobs he could have had,but he wasn't interested. And I'll tell
you why he wasn't. He hadsomething bigger, something he wanted to work

(33:34):
on, so he and these twoothers went off by themselves. You think
he was working on a temporal theArmy secretary cut in. He was working
on a time machine, roared theGeneral. I don't know about this temporal
business. Just playing time machine isgood enough for me. Let's calm down,

(33:54):
General, said the j c Schairman. After all, there's no
need to shout. The General nodded. I'm sorry, sir, I get
all worked up about this. I'vespent the last ten years with it.
As you say, I'm trying tomake up for what I failed to do
ten years ago. I should havetalked to Hudson. I was busy,

(34:14):
sure, but not that busy.It's an official state of mind that we're
too busy to see anyone. AndI plead guilty on that score. And
now that you're talking about closing theproject, it's costing us money, said
the Army Secretary. And we haveno direct evidence, pointed out the JCS

(34:35):
chairman. I don't know what youwant, snapped the General. If there
was any man alive who could cracktime, that man was Wesley Adams.
We found where he worked, wefound the workshop, and we talked to
the neighbors, who said there wassomething funny going on. And but ten
years General, the Army Secretary,protested, Hudson came here bringing us the

(34:57):
greatest discovery in all history, andwe kicked him out after that. Do
you expect them to come crawling backto us? Do you think they went
to someone else. They wouldn't dothat. They know what the thing they
have found would mean. They wouldn'tsell us out. Hudson came with a
preposterous proposition, said the man fromthe State Department. They had to protect

(35:22):
themselves, yelled the General. Ifyou had discovered a virgin planet with its
natural resources intact, what would youdo about it? Come trotting down here
and hand it over to a governmentthat's too busy to recognize. General,
Yes, sir, apologized the Generaltiredly. I wish you, gentlemen,

(35:42):
could see my view of it,how it all fits together. First,
there were the films, and wehave the word of a dozen competent paleontologists
that it's impossible to fake anything asperfect as those films. But even granting
that they could be, there aren'tcertain differences that no one would ever think
of faking. Because no one everknew who, as an example, would

(36:04):
put links tassels on the ears ofa saber tooth, Who would know that
young mastodon were black? And thelocation. I wonder if you've forgotten that
we'd tracked down the location of Adams'sworkshop from those films alone. They gave
us clues so positive that we didn'teven hesitate. We drove straight to the
old deserted farm where Adams and hisfriends had worked. Don't you see how

(36:27):
it all fits together? I presumeThe man from the state department said nastily
that you even have an explanation asto why they chose that particular location.
You thought you had me there,said the general. But I have an
answer, a good one. Thesouthwestern corner of Wisconsin is a geologic curiosity.

(36:49):
It was missed by all the glaciations. Why, we do not know.
Whatever the reason, the glaciers camedown on both sides 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.

(37:09):
That and a few other spots arethe only areas in North America which
have not time and time again beencovered by water. I don't think it
necessary to point out the comfort itwould be to an experimental traveler in time
to be certain that in almost anyera he might hit, he'd have dry
land beneath him. The economics expertspoke up. We've given this matter a

(37:32):
lot of study, and while wedo not feel ourselves competent to rule upon
the possibility or impossibility of time travel, there are some observations I should like
at some time to make go ahead. Right now, said the j c
S chairman. We see one objectionto the entire matter. One of the

(37:52):
reasons, naturally, that we hadsome interest in it is that, if
true, it would give us anentire new planet to exploit, perhaps more
wisely than we've done in the past. But the thought occurs to us that
any planet has only a certain grandtotal of natural resources. If we go
into the past and exploit them,what effect will that have upon what is

(38:13):
left of those resources for use inthe present. Wouldn't we, in doing
this be robbing ourselves of our ownheritage? That contention, said the AEC
chairman, wouldn't hold true in everycase, quite the reverse. In fact,
we know that there was in somegeologic areas in the past a great
deal more uranium than we have today. Go back far enough, and you'd

(38:37):
catch that uranium before it turned intolead. In southwestern Wisconsin there is a
lot of lead. Hudson told ushe knew the location of vast uranium deposits,
and we thought he was a crackpottalking through his hat. If we'd
known, Let's be fair about this, if we had known and believed him
about going back in time, we'dhave snapped him up at once and all

(38:59):
this would not have happened. Itwouldn't hold true with forests, either,
said the chairman of the JCS,or with pastures or with crops. The
economics expert was slightly flushed. Thereis another thing, he said, if
we go back in time and colonizethe land we find there, what would

(39:20):
happen when that well, let's callit retroactive, When that retroactive civilization reaches
the beginning of our historic period,what will result from that cultural collision?
Will our history change? Is whathas happened? False? Is that's all
poppycock? The general shouted that andthis other talk about using up resources.

(39:44):
Whatever we did in the past orare about to do, has been done
already. I've wait awake nights,mister, thinking about all these things,
and there is no answer, believeme, except the one I give you.
The question which faces us here isan immediate one. Do we give
up all this? Or do wekeep on watching that Wisconsin farm waiting for
them to come back? Do wekeep on trying to find independently the process

(40:07):
or formula or method that Adams foundfor traveling in time? We've had no
luck in our research so far,general, said the quiet physicist who sat
at the table's end. If youwere not so sure, and if the
evidence were not so convincing that ithad been done by Adams, I'd say
flatly that it is impossible. Wehave no approach which holds any hope at

(40:30):
all. What we've done so farmight best be described as flounder. But
if Adams turned the trick, itmust be possible. There may be,
As a matter of fact, moreways than one. We'd like to keep
on trying. Not one word ofblame has been put on you for your
failure. The chairman told the physicistthat you could do it seems to be

(40:53):
more than can be humanly expected ifAdams did it. If he did,
I say, it must have beensimply that he blundered on an avenue of
research no other man has thought of. You will recall, said the General,
that the research program, even fromthe first, was thought of strictly
as a gamble. Our one hopewas and must remain, that they will

(41:15):
return. It would have been somuch simpler all around, The State Department
man said, if Adams had patentedhis method. The General raged at him
and had it published all neat andorderly in the Patent Office records, so
that anyone who wanted it could lookit up and have it. We can

(41:36):
be most sincerely thankful, said theChairman, that he did not patent it.
Chapter six. The helicopter would neverfly again, but the time unit
was intact, which didn't mean thatit would work. They held a Powell
at their camp. It had beenThey decided simpler to move the camp and

(41:58):
to remove the body of old Buster. So they had shifted at dawn,
leaving the old mastodon still sprawled acrossthe helicopter. In a day or two,
they knew the great bones would becleanly picked by the carrion birds,
the lesser cats, the wolves andfoxes, and the little skulkers. Getting
the time unit out of the helicopterhad been quite a chore, but they

(42:20):
finally had managed it, and nowAdams sat with it cradled in his lap.
The worst of it, he toldthem, is that I can't test
it. There's no way to know. You turn it on and it works
or it doesn't work. You can'tknow till you try. That's something we
can't help. Cooper replied. Theproblem seems to me is how we're going
to use it without the whirly bird. We have to figure out some way

(42:45):
to get up in the air,said Adams. We don't want to take
the chance of going up into thetwentieth century and arriving there about six feet
underground. Common sense says that weshould be higher here than up ahead.
Hudson pointed out, these hills havestood here since Jurassic times. They probably
were a good deal higher then andhave weathered down. That weathering still should

(43:08):
be going on, so we shouldbe higher here than in the twentieth century.
Not much, perhaps, but higher. Did anyone ever notice what the
altimeter read? Asked Cooper. Idon't believe I did. Adams admitted,
it wouldn't tell you anyhow, Hudsondeclared, it would just give our height

(43:29):
then and now, and we weremoving, remember, and what about air
pockets and relative atmosphere density and allthe rest. Cooper looked as discouraged as
Hudson felt. How does this sound, asked Adams. We'll build a platform
twelve feet high that certainly should beenough to clear us, and yet small
enough to stay within the range ofthe unit's force field. And what if

(43:52):
we're two feet higher here? Hudsonpointed out, a fall of fourteen feet
wouldn't kill a man unless he isplain unlucky. It might break some bones,
So it might break some bones.You want to stay here or take
a chance on a broken leg?All right? If you put it that
way. The platform, you say, a platform out of what timber?

(44:16):
There's lots of it. We justgo out and cut some logs. A
twelve foot log is heavy, andhow are we going to get that big
log uphill? We drag it?We try to? You mean, maybe
we could fix up a cart,said Adams, after thinking a moment out
of what Cooper asked rollers. Maybewe could cut some and roll the logs

(44:42):
up here. That would work onlevel ground, Hudson said, it wouldn't
work to roll a log up hill. It would get away from us.
Someone might get killed. The logswould have to be longer than twelve feet
anyhow, Cooper put in, you'dhave to set them in a hole,
and that takes away some footage.Why not the tripod principle, Hudson offered,

(45:02):
Fasten three logs at the top andraise them. That's a gin pole,
a primitive derrick. It'd still haveto be longer than twelve feet fifteen
sixteen maybe, And how are wegoing to hoist three sixteen foot logs?
We'd need a block and tackle.There's another thing, said Cooper. Part
of those logs might just be beyondthe effective range of the force field.

(45:27):
Part of them would have to haveto mind you move in time, and
part couldn't. That would set upa stress. Another thing about it,
added Hudson, is that we'd travelwith the logs. I don't want to
come out in another time with abunch of logs flying all around me.
Cheer up. Adams told them maybethe unit won't work anyhow. Chapter seven,

(45:52):
The General sat alone in his officeand held his head between his hands.
The fools, he thought, thegoddamn knuckle headed fools. Why couldn't
they see it as clearly as hedid. For fifteen years now as head
of Project Mastedon, he had livedwith it night and day, and he
could see all the possibilities as clearlyas if they had been actual fact,

(46:15):
not military possibilities alone, although asa military man he naturally would think of
those first. The hidden bases,for example, located within the very strongholds
of potential enemies within yet centuries removedin time, many centuries removed, and
only seconds distant. He could seeat all the materialization of the fleets,

(46:38):
the swift, devastating blow, thenthe instantaneous retreat into the fastness of the
past. Terrific destruction, but nota ship lost, nor a man,
except that if you had the bases, you need never strike the blow.
If you had the bases and letthe enemy know you had them, there
would never be a provocation. Andon the home front you'd have air raid

(47:01):
shelters that would be effective. You'devacuate your population, not in space but
time. You'd have the sure andabsolute defense against any kind of bombing,
fission, fusion, bacteriological, orwhatever else the labs had in stock.
And if the worst should come,which it never would, with a setup

(47:21):
like that, you'd have a placeto which the entire nation could retreat,
leaving to the enemy the empty,blasted cities and the lethally dusted countryside sanctuary.
That had been what Hudson had offeredthe then Secretary of State fifteen years
ago, and the idiot had frozenup with the insult of it, and
had Hudson thrown out. And ifwar did not come, think of the

(47:45):
living space and the vast new opportunities, not the least of which would be
the opportunity to achieve peaceful living ina virgin world where the old hatreds would
slough off and new concepts have achance to grow. He wondered where they
were, those three men who hadgone back into time dead, perhaps run
down by a mastodon or stalked bytigers, or maybe done in by warlike

(48:10):
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 blame disgusted, and he couldn't blame
them if they were. Or maybe, let's be fantastic about this, sneaking
in colonists from someplace other than thewatched Wisconsin farm building up in actuality the

(48:37):
nation they had claimed to be.They had to get back to the present
soon or Project Mastodon would be killedentirely. Already the research program had been
halted, and if something didn't happenquickly, the watch that was kept on
the Wisconsin farm would be called off. And if they do that, said
the general, I know just whatI'll do. He got up and strode

(48:58):
around the room. By God,he said, I'll show em. Chapter
eight. It had taken ten fulldays of back breaking work to build the
pyramid. They'd hauled the rocks fromthe creek bed half a mile away and
had piled them stone by rolling stone, to the height of a full twelve

(49:21):
feet. It took a lot ofrocks and a lot of patients, for
as the pyramid went up, thebase naturally kept broadening out. But now
all was finally ready. Hudson satbefore the burned out camp fire and held
his blistered hands before him. Itshould work, he thought, better than
the logs and less dangerous. Graba handful of sand. Some trickled back

(49:45):
between your fingers, but most stayedin your grasp. That was the principle
of the pyramid of stones. Whenand if the time machine should work,
most of the rocks would go along. Those that didn't go would simply trick
all out and do no harm.There'd be no stress or strain to upset
the working of the force field.And if the time unit didn't work,

(50:08):
or if it did, this wasthe end of the dream, thought Hudson,
no matter how you looked 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 the dawn ofhistory, back almost to the dawn of

(50:28):
man. Although how far you traveledwould have no significance. An hour or
a million years would be all thesame. If you could span the hour,
you could span the million years.And if you could go back the
million years, it was within yourpower to go back to the first tick
of eternity, the first stir oftime, across the face of emptiness and

(50:49):
nothingness, back to that initial instant, when nothing as yet had happened or
been planned or thought, when allthe vastness of the universe was a new
slate waiting the first chalk stroke ofdestiny. Another helicopter would cost thirty thousand
dollars, and they didn't even havethe money to buy the tractor they needed
to build the stockade. There wasno way to borrow. You couldn't walk

(51:13):
into a bank and say you wantedthirty thousand to take a trip back to
the old Stone Age. You stillcould go to some industry, or some
university or the government, and ifyou could persuade them you had something on
the ball, why then they mightput up the cash after cutting themselves in
on just about all of the profits, and naturally they'd run the show because

(51:34):
it was their money, and allyou had done was the sweating and the
bleeding. There's one thing that stillbothers me, said Cooper, breaking the
silence. We spend a lot oftime picking our spot, so we'd miss
the barn and house and all theother buildings. Don't tell me the windmill,
Hudson cried. Now, I'm prettysure we're clear of that. But

(51:57):
the way I figure We're right astridethat barbed wire fence at the south end
of the 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 got to his feet the timeunit tucked underneath his arm. Come on,
you guys, it's time to go. They climbed the pyramid gingerly and

(52:22):
stood unsteadily at its top. Adamsshifted the unit around, clasped it to
his chest. Stand around close,he said, and bend your knees a
little. It may be quite adrop. Go ahead, said Cooper.
Press the button. Adams pressed thebutton. Nothing happened. The unit didn't

(52:42):
work. Chapter nine. The Chiefof Central Intelligence was white lipped when he
finished talking. You're sure of yourinformation, asked the president. Mister President,
said the CIA chief. I've neverbeen more sure of anything in my
entire life. The President looked atthe other two who were in the room,

(53:07):
a question in his eyes. TheJCS 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 oftraveling in time. They've tried and failed,

(53:28):
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 numbers up. Butwe dropped Project mastered on entirely almost
three years ago. It's been allof ten years since we stopped the research.
It was twenty five years ago,that Hudson. That makes no difference,

(53:51):
sir. They're convinced we dropped theproject publicly but went underground with it.
That would be the kind of strategythey could understand. The President picked
up a pencil and doodled on apad. Who was that old general,
he asked, the one who raisedso much fuss when we dropped the project.
I remember I was in the Senate. Then he came around to see

(54:13):
me. Bowers, sir, saidthe j c S chairman. That's right.
What became of him? Retired?Well, I guess it doesn't make
any difference now. He doodled somemore and finally said, gentlemen, it
looks like this is it. Howmuch time did you say? We had?
Not more than ninety days, sir, May be as little as thirty.

(54:36):
The President looked up at the jc S chairman. We are as
ready, said the chairman, aswe will ever be. We can handle
them. I think there will ofcourse be some, I know, said
the President. Could we bluff,asked the Secretary of State, speaking quietly.
I know it wouldn't stick, butat least we might buy some time.

(55:00):
You mean hint that we have timetravel. The Secretary nodded. It
wouldn't work, said the CIA chieftiredly. If we really had it,
there'd be no question. Then they'dbecome exceedingly well mannered, even neighborly,
if they were sure we had it. But we haven't got it, said
the President gloomily. Chapter ten,the two hunters trudged homeward late in the

(55:28):
afternoon with a deer slung from apole they carried on their shoulders. Their
breath hung visibly in the air asthey walked along. For the frost had
come and any day now they knewthere would be snow. I'm worried about
Wess, said Cooper, breathing heavily. He's taking this too hard. We'd
got to keep an eye on him. Let's take a rest, panted Hudson.

(55:52):
They halted and lowered the deer tothe ground. He blames himself too
much, said Cooper. He wipedhis sweaty forehead. There isn't any need
to All of us walked into thiswith our eyes wide open. He's kidding
himself and he knows it. Butit gives him something to go on.
As long as he can keep busywith all his puttering around, he'll be
all right. He isn't going torepair the time unit, Chuck. I

(56:16):
know he isn't, and he knowsit too. He hasn't got the tools
or materials. Back in the workshop. He might have had a chance,
but here he hasn't. It's roughon him. It's rough on all of
us. Yes, but we didn'tget a brainstorm that ruined two old friends
in this tail end of nowhere.And we can't make him swallow it when

(56:38):
we say that it's okay, wedon't mind at all. That's a lot
to swallow, Johnny. What's goingto happen to us, Chuck. We've
got ourselves a place to live,and there's lots to eat, save our
ammo for the big game, alot of eating for each bullet and trap.
The smaller animals I'm wondering what willhappen when flour and all the other

(57:00):
stuff is gone. We don't havetoo much of it, because we always
figured we could bring in more.We'll live on meat, said Hudson.
We got bisoned by the million theplains Indians lived on them alone. Then
in the spring we'll find roots,and in the summer berries, and in
the fall we'll harvest a half dozenkinds of nuts. Someday our ammo will

(57:22):
be gone, no matter how carefulwe are with it. Bows and arrows,
sling shots, spears. There's alot of beasts here I wouldn't want
to stand up to with nothing buta spear. We won't stand up to
them. We'll duck when we can, and run when we can't duck without
our guns. We're no lords ofcreation, not in this place. If

(57:45):
we're going to live, we'll haveto recognize that fact. And if one
of us gets sick or breaks alag or we'll do the best we can.
Nobody lives forever. But they weretalking around the thing that really bothers
them, Hudson told himself, eachof them afraid to speak the thought aloud.

(58:05):
They'd live all right so far,as food, shelter, and clothing
were concerned, and they'd live mostof the time in plenty, for this
was a fat and open handed land, and a man could make an easy
living. But the big problem,the one they were afraid to talk about,
was their emptiness of purpose to live. They had to find some meaning
in a world without society. Aman cast away on a desert aisle could

(58:30):
always live for hope, but herethere was no hope. A Robinson Crusoe
was separated from his fellow humans byat the most a few thousand miles.
Here they were separated by one hundredand fifty thousand years. Wes Adams was
the lucky one so far, evenplaying his thousand to one shot, he

(58:50):
still held tightly to a purpose,feeble as it might be, the hope
that he could repair the time machine. We don't need to watch him now,
thought Hudson. The next time we'llhave to watch is when he is
forced to admit that he can't fixthe machine. And both Hudson and Cooper
had been kept sane enough, forthere had been the cabin to be built,
and the winter's supply of wood tocut, and the hunting to be

(59:14):
done. But then there would comea time when all the chores were finished
and 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. Hudsonhad lain awake nights thinking of it,
and all the thoughts had been deadends. One could write a natural history

(59:38):
of the plies to scene, completewith photographs and sketches, and it would
be a pointless thing to do becauseno future scientist would ever have a chance
to read it. Or they mightlabor to build a memorial, a vast
pyramid, perhaps, which would carrya message forward across fifteen hundred centuries,
snatching with bare hands at a semblanceof him mortality. But if they did,

(01:00:01):
they would be working against the shoreand certain knowledge that it all would
come to naught, for they knewin advance that no such pyramid existed in
historic time. Or they might setout to seek contemporary man hiking across four
thousand miles of wilderness to bearing straightand over into Asia, and having found

(01:00:21):
contemporary man cowering in his caves,they might be able to help him immeasurably
along the road to his great inheritance, except that they'd never make it,
and even if they did, contemporaryman undoubtedly would find some way to do
them in and might eat them inthe bargain. They came out of the
woods and there was the cabin justa hundred yards away. It crouched against

(01:00:44):
the hillside above the spring, withthe sweep of grassland billowing beyond it to
the slate gray skyline. A trickleof smoke came up from the chimney and
they saw the door was open.West Lawton. To leave it open that
way, said Cooper, telling whena bear might decide to come visiting.
Hey Wes, yelled Hudson, butthere was no sign of him inside the

(01:01:07):
cabin. A white sheet of paperlay on the tabletop. Hudson snatched it
up and read it with Cooper athis shoulder. Dear guys, I don't
want to get your hopes up againand 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 backand burn this note and never say a
word. But if you find thenote, you'll know it worked, and

(01:01:30):
I'll be back to get you WesHudson crumpled the note in his hand.
A crazy fool, he's gone offhis rocker, Cooper said, he just
thought the same thought struck them both, and they bolted for the door at
the corner of the cabin. Theyskidded to a halt and stood there,
staring at the ridge above them.The pyramid of rocks they'd built two months

(01:01:52):
ago was gone. Chapter eleven.The crash brought General Leslie Bowers retired up
out of bed, about two feetout of bed, old muscle's tents,
white mustache bristling. Even at hisage, the General was a man of
action. He flipped the cover's back, swung his feet out to the floor,

(01:02:15):
and grabbed the shotgun. Leaning againstthe wall, muttering, he blundered
out of the bedroom, marched acrossthe dining room, and charged into the
kitchen. There beside the door,he snapped on the switch that turned on
the floodlights. He practically took thedoor off its hinges, getting to the
stoop, and he stood there,bare feet gripping the planks, night shirt

(01:02:36):
blowing in the wind, the shotgunpoised and ready, what's going on out
here? He bellowed? There wasa tremendous pile of rocks resting where he'd
parked his car. One crumpled fenderand a drunken headlight peeped out of the
rubble. A man was clambering carefullydown the jumbled stones, making a detour

(01:02:57):
to dodge the battered fender. TheGeneral pulled back the hammer of the gun
and fought to control himself. Theman reached the bottom of the pile and
turned around to face him. TheGeneral saw that he was hugging something tightly
to his chest. Mister, theGeneral told him, your explanation better be
a good one. That was abrand new car, and this was the

(01:03:19):
first time I was set for anight's sleep since my tooth quit aching.
The man just stood and looked athim. Who in thunder are you,
roared the general. The man walkedslowly forward. He stopped at the bottom
of the stoop. My name isWesley Adams, he said, I'm Wesley
Adams, howled the General. Mygod, man, where have you been

(01:03:43):
all these years? Well, Idon't imagine you'll believe me, but the
fact is we've been waiting for youfor twenty five long years. Or rather,
I've been waiting for you. Thoseother idiots gave up. I've waited
right here for you, Adams,for the last three years, ever since
they called off the guard. Adamsgulped. I'm sorry about the car.

(01:04:04):
You see it was this way theGeneral, he saw, was beaming at
him fondly. I had faith inyou, the General said. He waved
the shotgun by way of invitation.Come on in, I have to make
a call. Adams stumbled up thestairs. Move, the General ordered,
shivering on the double. You wantme to catch my death of cold out

(01:04:28):
here inside? He fumbled for thelights and turned them on. He laid
the shotgun across the kitchen table andpicked up the telephone. Give me the
White House at Washington, he said, Yes, I said, the White
House the President. Naturally, he'sthe one I want to talk to.
Yes, it's all right, hewon't mind my calling him, Sir,

(01:04:50):
said Adams tentatively. The General lookedup. What is it, Adams?
Go ahead, say it? Didyou say? Twenty five of years?
That's what I said? What wereyou doing all that time? Adams grasped
the table and hung on. Butit wasn't. Yes, said the General

(01:05:12):
to the operator. Yes, I'llwait. He held his hand over the
receiver and looked inquiringly at Adams.I imagine you'll want the same terms as
before. Terms sure recognition point foraid defense packed. I suppose so,
Adams said, you got these SAPsacross the barrel. The General told him

(01:05:34):
happily. You can get anything youwant. You rate it too, after
what you've done and the bonehead treatmentyou got, but especially for not selling
out. Chapter twelve, the nighteditor read the bullet and just off the
teletype. Well what do you know, he said, We just recognized Macedonia.

(01:05:59):
He looked at the copy chief.Where the hell is Macedonia? He
asked. The copy chief shrugged,don't ask me. You're the brains in
this joint. Well, let's geta map for the next edition, said
the knight editor. Chapter thirteen,Tabby the Sabertooth dabbed playfully at Cooper with

(01:06:21):
his mighty paw. Cooper kicked himin the ribs an equally playful gesture.
Tabby snarled at him. Show yourteeth at me, will you? Said?
Cooper raised you from a kitten,and that's the gratitude you showed to
it. Just once more and I'llbelt you in the chops. Tabby lay

(01:06:41):
down blissfully and began to wash hisface. Someday warned Hudson that cat will
miss a meal, and that's theday you're in Gentle is a dove,
Cooper assured him, wouldn't hurt afly. Well, one thing about it.
Nothing dares to bother us with thatmonstrosity around. Best watchdog there ever,

(01:07:03):
was got to have something to guardall this stuff we've got when West
gets back, will be millionaires,all those furs and ginsing and the ivory.
If he gets back, he'll beback. Quit you're worrying, But
it's been five years, Hudson protested. He'll be back. Something happened,

(01:07:26):
that's all. He's probably working onit right now. Could be that he
messed up the time setting when herepaired the unit, or it might have
been knocked out of kilter when Busterhit the helicopter. That would take a
while to fix. I don't worrythat he won't come back. What I
can't figure out is why did hego and leave us. I've told you
Hudson said he was afraid it wouldn'twork. There wasn't any need to be

(01:07:49):
scared of that. We never wouldhave laughed at him. No, of
course we wouldn't. Then what washe scared of? Cooper asked if the
unit failed, and we knew itfailed, Wess was afraid we'd try to
make him see how hopeless and insaneit was, and he knew we'd probably
convince him, and then all hishope would be gone. And he wanted

(01:08:11):
to hang on to that, Johnny, he wanted to hang on to his
hope even when there wasn't any left. That doesn't matter now, said Cooper.
What counts is that he'll come back. I can feel it in my
bones. And here's another case,thought Hudson of hope, begging to be
allowed to go on living God.He thought, I wish I could be

(01:08:32):
that blind. Wess is working onit right now, said Cooper confidently,
Chapter fourteen. He was not healone, but a thousand others, working
desperately, knowing that the time wasshort, working not alone for two men

(01:08:53):
trapped in time, but for thepeace they all had dreamed about that the
whole world had yearned for through theages. For to be of any use,
it was imperative that they could zeroin the time machines they meant to
build as an artilleryman would zero ina battery of guns that each time machine
would take its occupants to the sameinstant of the past, that their operation

(01:09:14):
would extend over the same period oftime to the exact second. It was
a problem of control and calibration.Starting with a prototype that was calibrated as
its finest adjustment for jumps of fiftythousand years, Project Mastodon was finally under
way. End of Project Mastodon byClifford D. Simac
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