stickin' out the tops o' their
heads? I heard tell, once, that's how they're run."

Some of the robots took saws from the truck and began to cut through the
tree trunk. Others produced cables and huge hooks to attach the obstacle
to the bulldozers.

"Look at 'em go!" sighed Sid, hunching his stiff shoulders jealously.
"Took us hours, an' they're half done already."

They watched as the robots precisely severed the part of the tree that
blocked the highway, going not one inch beyond the gravel shoulder, and
helped the bulldozers to tug it aside. On the opposite side of the
concrete, the shoulder tapered off into a six-foot drop. The log was
jockeyed around parallel to this ditch and rolled into it, amid a
thrashing of branches and a spurting of small pebbles.

"Glad we're on the high side," whispered Mike. "That thing 'ud squash a
guy's guts right out!"

"Keep listenin' to me," Blackie said, "an' you'll keep on bein' in the
right place at the right time."

Mike raised his eyebrows at Vito, who thrust out his lower lip and
nodded sagely. Sid grinned, but no one contradicted the boast.

"They're linin' up," Blackie warned tensely. "You guys ready? Where's
that rope?"

Someone thrust it into his hands. Still squinting at the scene on the
highway, he fumbled for the ends and held one out to Mike. The others
gripped their clubs.

"Now, remember!" ordered Blackie. "Me an' Mike will trip up the last one
in line. You two get in there quick an' wallop him over the head--but
good!"

"Don't go away while we're doin' it," said big Sid. "They won't chase
ya, but they look out fer themselves. I don't wanna get tossed twenty
feet again!"

The eyes of the others flicked toward the jagged white scar running down
behind Sid's right ear and under the collar of his jacket. Then they
swung back to the road.

"Good!" breathed Blackie. "The rollin' stuff's goin' first."

The truck and bulldozers set out toward the city, with the column of
robots marching a fair distance behind. The latter approached the
ambush--drew abreast--began to pass.

Blackie raised himself to a crouch with just the tips of his fingers
steadying him.

* * * * *

As the last robot plodded by, he surged out of the brush, joined to Red
Mike by their grips on the twenty feet of rope. They ran up behind the
marching machine, trailed by the others.

In his right hand, Blackie twirled the part of the rope hanging between
hi