o more than a guess. However,
it appeared that the visitor was summoning the chiefs of the assembled
tribes to a meeting within the spaceship.

* * * * *

Evidently it took some doing. Faced with a familiar danger, there is
no human more courageous than an Indian. But the thought of entering
the yawning maw of that steel cavern would have shaken the nerves of
Manabus himself.

Finally the visiting Indian's oratory paid off, and nine or ten of the
tribal leaders reluctantly entered the spaceship. Two robots took up
positions on the ramp to discourage kibitzers, and after an hour or so
in which nothing more happened, the rest of the camp returned pretty
much to normal.

Mid-afternoon came and passed, and still the meeting inside the ship
went on. Enoch was finding the tree branch not the most comfortable
place to spend a weekend, and he was growing steadily more uneasy by
his father's continued absence.

More hours passed. The sun was gone now and campfires began to dot the
night. Orders or no orders, Enoch decided, he was going to find his
Pop. With a stealth equal to that of any Indian, he dropped to the
ground and began a cautious advance in the direction his father had
taken hours before.

Suddenly the bushes crashed apart directly in front of him, and his
father came bounding through. Only a few yards back, its giant strides
rapidly closing the gap, came one of the huge steel men.

Enoch's gun flashed up and he fired without aiming. The bullet struck
one of the robot's huge eyes, shattering the glass and sending the
towering figure crashing headlong into a tree. At the same instant, an
ear-shattering wail came from the fallen robot, and powerful rays of
light flashed from the rim of the spaceship to bathe the spot where
the two Wetzels stood.

Mixed with the siren wail from the fallen man of steel came a chorus
of blood-curdling warhoops as the Indians made out the figures of the
two men, and a hundred braves came pouring across the clearing toward
them. Instantly the two scouts took to their heels, darting through
the inky blackness of the forest with the sure-footed celerity of long
practice.

They would have escaped easily under ordinary circumstances. But
suddenly the blast of another siren sounded directly ahead and a lance
of light impaled them. Blinded, they stumbled aside, only to be caught
by still another beam.

The two men split apart and dived for cover. Enoch,