harles suggested. "We've
considered that, too. Maybe in pieces, Mr. Elvin. You know, an acre or
two to Australia, another to Germany, another to England. That couldn't
cause much more than local riots."

"But the men would be mighty uncomfortable for a while."

"The only trouble is, our machines are so crude; we've had to build them
out of scraps. And something could go wrong. We might try to send some
of the mob to China, and end up putting them in the Pacific, or maybe
back in time."

"You've done enough tampering," Elvin declared. "I won't help you at
all, unless you promise to leave everything as it is. You have to put
yourselves in a position to help the world, not destroy it."

* * * * *

Elvin had injected just the right tone of nobility into his voice. The
thirty adolescents consulted together in whispers. Then David asked,

"What do you want us to do, Mr. Elvin?"

"Let me act as your representative. I'll go to Washington and talk to
responsible men in the government; I'll try to see the president
himself. We should set up a scientific foundation for you, where you'll
have the equipment you need and where your experiments won't do the rest
of us any harm. But, if I'm to convince anybody, I'm going to have to do
some tall talking. If you had one of the capsules left--"

"No, Mr. Elvin; they're all gone." David was not looking at him, and
Elvin knew he was lying; but this was not the occasion to make an issue
of it. Above everything else, he had to see to it that they had complete
faith in his motives.

"Then one of your machines," he suggested. "I have to make them
understand I'm not a crank."

"That sounds sensible. Which one, Mr. Elvin? The Degravitational Unit is
the smallest, and it would do the least harm if--" David looked away
again. "--if it got out of your hands."

"It isn't sensational enough. I rather wanted to show them this thing
you used to transpose the bank and a square of jungle."

"Oh, no!" Marilyn broke in. "We couldn't--"

"Why that, Mr. Elvin?"

"I've already told you. It's the sort of thing that would attract the
attention of the important officials immediately, because it could be
converted so readily to a weapon of inestimable value."

There was a long silence, while the thirty youngsters looked from one to
the other. It lengthened. Elvin felt a creeping edge of fear. David
spoke at last,

"I think you're right, Mr. Elvin. We could show th