had been to the west
of here, in a ruined city?"

"I never guess," the oldster with the silver bar and the
keystone-shaped red patch on his left shoulder replied. "It is a
shocking habit--destructive to the logical faculty. What seems strange
to you is only so because you do not follow my train of thought. For
example, the wheels and their framework under your flying machine are
splashed with mud which seems to be predominantly brick-dust, mixed
with plaster. Obviously, you landed recently in a dead city, either
during or after a rain. There was a rain here yesterday evening, the
wind being from the west. Obviously, you followed behind the rain as
it came up the river. And now that I look at your boots, I see traces
of the same sort of mud, around the soles and in front of the heels.
But this is heartless of us, keeping you standing here on a wounded
leg, sir. Come in, and let our medic look at it."

"Well, thank you, lieutenant," Loudons replied. "But don't bother your
medic; I've attended to the wound myself, and it wasn't serious to
begin with."

"You are a doctor?" the white-bearded man asked.

"Of sorts. A sort of general scientist. My name is Loudons. My friend,
Mr. Altamont, here, is a scientist, also."

There was an immediate reaction; all three of the elders of the
village, and the young riflemen who had accompanied them, exchanged
glances of surprise. Loudons dropped his hand to the grip of his slung
auto-carbine, and Altamont sidled unobtrusively away from him, his
hand moving as by accident toward the butt of his pistol. The same
thought was in both men's minds, that these people might feel, as a
heritage of the war of two centuries ago, a hostility to science and
scientists. There was no hostility, however, in their manner as the
old man advanced and held out his hand.

"I am Tenant Mycroft Jones, the Toon Leader here," he said. "This is
Stamford Rawson, our Reader, and Verner Hughes, our Toon Sarge. This
is his son, Murray Hughes, the Toon Sarge of the Irregulars. But come
into the Aitch-Cue House, gentlemen. We have much to talk about."

* * * * *

By this time, the villagers had begun to emerge from the log cabins
and rubble-walled houses around the plaza and the old church. Some of
them, mostly young men, were carrying rifles, but the majority of them
were unarmed. About half of them were women, in short deerskin or
homespun dresses; there were a number of child