at his control he
could force the white man from the continent and restore the land to
those who owned it.

Arriving near the close of the Eighteenth Century, he found a sizeable
encampment of Indians, brought the ship down among them, and summoned
the chiefs to a Council of War, where he outlined to them his plan. To
his astonishment he found the chiefs suspicious of outside help and
confident that they could defeat the white man alone. In vain did
Lo-as-ro explain that they were doomed; they could not, or would not,
believe that he had visited the future. He offered to take them ahead
and let them see for themselves--an offer that was quickly refused.

Whereupon Lo-as-ro decided to return to the Present and wrest the land
from the white man and hand it over to the downtrodden remnants of a
once-powerful race. It was on that return trip that Wetzel had arrived
in the present century.

When Lo-as-ro finished, I leaned back against the side of the ship and
lit a cigarette, bringing a startled grunt from the chief. I said,
"You cannot defeat the white man, Lo-as-ro. He has weapons such as you
have never dreamed: machines that can throw things that explode and
kill hundreds of braves at one time, machines that travel through the
air as does the one you came in, things that can wipe out all life
within a circle as wide as a brave can ride around in one day on a
fast horse.

"No, noble Lo-as-ro. Return to your world and leave this one to the
white man. He took it long ago and he will never give it up. I have
spoken."

The chief of the Orbiwah smiled grimly. "In the ship in which I
arrived on your world is a small machine. It is working for me now.
Within its reach no weapon is useful, no explosion can take place, no
signal can be sent. Only Man is not touched by this machine, but when
it works he has no weapons with which to fight. Each hour the
influence of this machine widens. Soon all this land will be helpless.
Then the robots will take charge and those who oppose them will be
slain."

I thought of the "dead spot" I had first heard about on the newscast
the night before, and how it was steadily growing. I remembered the
slain farmer with the missing scalp, the two companies of soldiers
helpless without radio, guns and transportation. I thought of a
mechanized America helpless before a few score of these spaceships ...
and I knew that counter-violence would be useless.

* * * * *