re--the police
to try and cope with the panics, and the firemen to fight the
conflagrations which everywhere began springing up. Fires, the natural
outcome of chaos; and fires, incendiary--made by criminals who took
advantage of the disaster to fatten like ghouls upon the dead. They
prowled the streets. They robbed and murdered at will.

The giant beams of the Robots carried a frigid blast for miles. By
dawn of that June 10th, the south wind was carrying from the enemy
area a perceptible wave of cold even as far as Westchester. Allen,
flying over the city, saw the devastated area clearly. Ice in the
streets--smashed vehicles--the gruesome litter of sword-slashed human
bodies. And other human bodies, plucked apart; strewn....

Alten's plane flew at an altitude of some two thousand feet. In the
growing daylight the dark prowling figures of the metal men were
plainly seen. There were no humans left alive in the captured area.
The plane dropped a bomb into Washington Square where a dozen or two
of the Robots were gathered. It missed them. The plane's pilot had not
realized that they were grouped around a projector; its red shaft
sprang up, caught the plane and clung to it. Frigid blast! Even at
that two thousand feet altitude, for a few seconds Alten and the
others were stiffened by the cold. The motor missed; very nearly
stopped. Then an intervening rooftop cut off the beam, and the plane
escaped.

* * * * *

All this I have pictured from what Dr. Alten subsequently told me. He
leaves my narrative now, since fate hereafter held him in the New York
City of 1935. But he has described for me three horrible days, and
three still more horrible nights. The whole world now was alarmed.
Every nation offered its forces of air and land and sea to overcome
these gruesome invaders. Warships steamed for New York harbor.
Soldiers were entrained and brought to the city outskirts. Airplanes
flew overhead. On Long Island, Staten Island, and in New Jersey,
infantry, tanks and artillery were massed in readiness.

But they were all very nearly powerless to attack. Manhattan Island
still was thronged with refugees. It was not possible for the millions
to escape; and for the first day there were hundreds of thousands
hiding in their homes. The city could not be shelled. The influx of
troops was hampered by the outrush of civilians.

By the night of the tenth, nevertheless, ten thousand soldiers were
surrou