ke long arrows. Most of them
whistled harmlessly past the two scientists, but one hit the side of the
station wagon, making a resounding thump and leaving a deep dent, while
two buried themselves in the wood of the U-Haul-It and remained there,
quivering.

George and Sidney, after the shock of their first surprise at this
attack, leaped to their feet.

"The car!" cried Sidney. "Let's get out of here!"

They both started to move. Then George stopped and grabbed Sidney's arm.
"Wait!"

"Wait?" Sidney demanded. "They'll kill us!"

"Look," advised George, indicating the red men who surrounded them; they
now made no further move of attack.

George gazed about. "Oh," he said, "you think somebody's playing a joke
on us?"

"Could be," said George. He ran one hand over his bald head.

"Some dear friends," Sidney went on, resenting the scare that had been
thrown into them, "hired some Indians to pretend to attack us?"

"Maybe Pimas," said George. He peered at the Indians, who now were
jabbering among themselves and making lamenting sounds as they glanced
about at the ruins of the ancient village. There were eighteen of them.
They were clad in nothing more than a curious cloth of some kind run
between their legs and up and over a cord about their waists, to form a
short apron, front and back.

"Or Zunis," said Sidney.

"Maybe Maricopas," said George.

"Except," Sidney observed, "none of them look like those kind of
Indians. And those arrows they shot." He stared at the two sticking in
the U-Haul-It. "Those aren't arrows, George--they're atlatl lances!"

"Yes," said George.

Sidney breathed, "They aren't holding bows--they've got atlatls!"

"No modern Indian of any kind," said George, "uses an atlatl."

"Most of them wouldn't even know what it was," Sidney agreed. "They
haven't been used for hundreds of years; the only place you see them is
in museums."

An atlatl was the weapon which had replaced the stone axe in the stone
age. It was a throwing stick consisting of two parts. One was the lance,
a feathered shaft up to four feet long, tipped with a stone point. The
two-foot flat stick that went with this had a slot in one end and two
rawhide finger loops. The lance end was fitted in the slot to be thrown.
The stick was an extension of the human arm to give the lance greater
force. Some atlatls had small charm stones attached to them to give
them extra weight and magic.

Charm stones could be seen fastened to