ain Tugh, the cripple, was mentioned. In 2930 he was a prominent
scientist! But Harl and Tina mistrusted him. Tugh and Harl had
invented the Time-traveling cages. It was a strange Time-world, that
2930, which now was described to Larry. It was an era in which all
work was done by mechanisms--fantastic Robots, all but human! And they
were now upon the verge of revolt against their human masters! Migul
was one of them. It had stolen one of the cages, gone to 1777 and
abducted Mary Atwood; and now, with her and me in its power, was
headed back for 1777 upon some strange mission. Was it acting for the
cripple Tugh? It seemed so. Tina and Harl, with Larry, chased our cage
and stopped in a night of the summer of 1777.

Simultaneously, from the house on Patton Place, in June of 1935,
Robots began appearing. A hundred of them, or a thousand, no one knew.
With swords and flashing red and violet light-beams they spread over
the city in the never-to-be-forgotten Massacre of New York! It was the
beginning of the vengeance Tugh had threatened! Nothing could stop the
monstrous mechanical men. For three days and nights New York City was
in chaos. The red beams were frigid. They brought a mid-summer
snowstorm! Then the violet beams turned the weather suddenly hot. A
crazy wild storm swept the wrecked city. Torrential hot rain poured
down. Then, one dawn, the beams vanished; the Robots retreated into
the house on Patton Place and disappeared; and New York was left a
horror of death and desolation.

The vengeance of Tugh against the New York City of 1935 was complete.

CHAPTER VIII

_The Murder of Major Atwood_

"We are late," Tina whispered. It was that night in 1777 when she,
Larry and Harl stepped from their Time-traveling cage; and again I am
picturing the events as Larry afterward described them to me. "Migul,
in the other cage, was here," Tina added. "But it's gone now. Exactly
where was it, I wonder?"

"Mary Atwood said it appeared in the garden."

They crept down the length of the field, just inside the picket fence.
In a moment the trees and an intervening hillock of ground hid the
dimly shining outline of their own cage from their sight. The dirt
road leading to Major Atwood's home was on the other side of the
fence.

"Wait," murmured Tina. "There is a light in the house. Someone is
awake."

"When was Migul here, do you think?" Larry whispered.

"Last night, perhaps. Or to-night. It may be only an hour--or a few