und-vehicle,
too. They were preparing for it. They were setting a splendid ambush,
with a highly-treasured weapon they ordinarily kept hidden. Their
triumphant hatred could apply to nothing else than an expectation of
inflicting injury on men of the Golden City.

So Tommy worked swiftly upon the catapult. A new little ring of
metallic ammonium was ready, and so were the necessary springs. The
Ragged Men would lay their ambush. The men of the Golden City might
enter it. They might. But the aviator who had spotted the globe would
have seen the shredded contents of the sphere about. He would have
known the Ragged Men had found it. And the men who came in a
ground-vehicle from the Golden City should be expecting just such an
ambush as was being laid.

There would be a fight, and Tommy, somehow, had no doubt that the men
of the Golden City would win. And when they had cleared the field he
would fling a smoking missile through the catapult. The victors should
see it and should examine it. And though writing would serve little
purpose, they should at least recognize it as written communication in
a language other than their own. And mathematical diagrams would
certainly be lucid, and proof of a civilized man sending the missile,
and photographs....

* * * * *

The catapult was ready, and Tommy prepared his message-carrying
projectile. He found snapshots and included them. He tore out a
photograph of Evelyn and her father, which had been framed above a
work bench in the laboratory. He labored, racking his brain for a
means of conveying the information that the globe was of any other
world.... And suddenly he had an idea. A cord attached to his missile
would lead to nothingness from either world, yet one end would be in
that other world, and the other end in this. A wire would be better.
Tugs upon it would convey the idea of living beings nearby but
invisible. The photograph would identify Denham and his daughter as
associated with the phenomenon and competent to explain it....

Tommy worked frantically to get the thing ready. He almost prayed that
the men of the Golden City would be victors, would find his little
missile when the fray was over, and would try to comprehend it....

All he could do was try.

Then Smithers said, from the dimensoscope:

"They're all set, Mr. Reames. Y'better look."

Tommy stared through the eye-piece. Strangely, the golden weapon had
vanished. All seemed to