nlike a searchlight in
appearance, the reflector of which, however, was not material substance,
but a complicated balance of interacting electronic forces. This
resulted in a terribly destructive beam. Under its influence, material
substance melted into "nothingness"; i. e., into electronic vibrations.
It destroyed all then known substances, from air to the most dense
metals and stone.

They settled down to the establishment of what became known as the Han
dynasty in America, as a sort of province in their World Empire.

Those were terrible days for the Americans. They were hunted like wild
beasts. Only those survived who finally found refuge in mountains,
canyons and forests. Government was at an end among them. Anarchy
prevailed for several generations. Most would have been eager to submit
to the Hans, even if it meant slavery. But the Hans did not want them,
for they themselves had marvelous machinery and scientific process by
which all difficult labor was accomplished.

Ultimately they stopped their active search for, and annihilation of,
the widely scattered groups of now savage Americans. So long as they
remained hidden in their forests, and did not venture near the great
cities the Hans had built, little attention was paid to them.

Then began the building of the new American civilization. Families and
individuals gathered together in clans or "gangs" for mutual protection.
For nearly a century they lived a nomadic and primitive life, moving
from place to place, in desperate fear of the casual and occasional Han
air raids, and the terrible disintegrator ray. As the frequency of these
raids decreased, they began to stay permanently in given localities,
organizing upon lines which in many respects were similar to those of
the military households of the Norman feudal barons, except that instead
of gathering together in castles, their defense tactics necessitated a
certain scattering of living quarters for families and individuals. They
lived virtually in the open air, in the forests, in green tents,
resorting to camouflage tactics that would conceal their presence from
air observers. They dug underground factories and laboratories, that
they might better be shielded from the electrical detectors of the
Hans. They tapped the radio communication lines of the Hans, with crude
instruments at first; better ones later on. They bent every effort
toward the redevelopment of science. For many generations they labored
as