Project Mastodon

'What's going on out there?' he bellowed.

There was a tremendous pile of rocks resting where he'd parked his car. One crumpled fender and a drunken headlight peeped out of the rubble.

A man was clambering carefully down the jumbled stones, making a detour to dodge the battered fender.

The general pulled back the hammer of the gun and fought to control himself.

The man reached the bottom of the pile and turned around to face him. The general saw that he was hugging something tightly to his chest.

'Mister,' the general told him, 'your explanation better be a good one. That was a brand-new car. And this was the first time I was set for a night of sleep since my tooth quit aching.'

The man just stood and looked at him.

'Who in thunder are you?' roared the general.

The man walked slowly forward. He stopped at the bottom of the stoop.

'My name is Wesley Adams,' he said. 'I'm—'

'Wesley Adams!' howled the general. 'My God, man, where have you been all these years?'

'Well, I don't imagine you'll believe me, but the fact is....'

'We've been waiting for you. For twenty-five long years! Or, rather, I've been waiting for you. Those other idiots gave up. I've waited right here for you, Adams, for the last three years, ever since they called off the guard.'

Adams gulped. 'I'm sorry about the car. You see, it was this way....'

The general, he saw, was beaming at him fondly.

'I had faith in you,' the general said.

He waved the shotgun by way of invitation. 'Come on in. I have a call to make.'

Adams stumbled up the stairs.

'Move!' the general ordered, shivering. 'On the double! You want me to catch my death of cold out here?'

Inside, he fumbled for the lights and turned them on. He laid the shotgun across the kitchen table and picked up the telephone.

'Give me the White House at Washington,' he said. 'Yes, I said the White House.... The President? Naturally he's the one I want to talk to.... Yes, it's all right. He won't mind my calling him.'

'Sir,' said Adams tentatively.

The general looked up. 'What is it, Adams? Go ahead and say it.'

'Did you say twenty-five years?'

'That's what I said. What were you doing all that time?'

Adams grasped the table and hung on. 'But it wasn't....'

'Yes,' said the general to the operator. 'Yes, I'll wait.'

He held his hand over the receiver and looked inquiringly at Adams. 'I imagine you'll want the same terms as before.'

'Terms?'

'Sure. Recognition. Point Four Aid. Defense pact.'

'I suppose so,' Adams said.

'You got these saps across the barrel,' the general told him happily. 'You can get anything you want. You rate it, too, after what you've done and the bonehead treatment you got—but especially for not selling out.'

XII

The night editor read the bulletin just off the teletype.

'Well, what do you know!' he said. 'We just recognized Mastodonia.'

He looked at the copy chief.

'Where the hell is Mastodonia?' he asked.

The copy chief shrugged. 'Don't ask me. You're the brains in this joint.'

'Well, let's get a map for the next edition,' said the night editor.

XIII

Tabby, the saber-tooth, dabbed playfully at Cooper with his mighty paw.

Cooper kicked him in the ribs—an equally playful gesture.

Tabby snarled at him.

'Show your teeth at me, will you!' said Cooper. 'Raised you from a kitten and that's the gratitude you show. Do it just once more and I'll belt you in the chops.'

Tabby lay down blissfully and began to wash his face.

'Some day,' warned Hudson, 'that cat will miss a meal and that's the day you're it.'

'Gentle as a dove,' Cooper assured him. 'Wouldn't hurt a fly.'

'Well, one thing about it, nothing dares to bother us with that monstrosity around.'

'Best watchdog there ever was. Got to have something to guard all this stuff we've got. When Wes gets back, we'll be millionaires. All those furs and ginseng and the ivory.'

'If he gets back.'

'He'll be back. Quit your worrying.'

'But it's been five years,' Hudson protested.

'He'll be back. Something happened, that's all. He's probably working on it right now. Could be that he messed up the time setting when he repaired the unit or it might have been knocked out of kilter when Buster hit the helicopter. That would take a while to fix. I don't worry that he won't come back. What I can't figure out is why did he go and leave us?'

'I've told you,' Hudson said. 'He was afraid it wouldn't work.'

'There wasn't any need to be scared of that. We never would have laughed at him.'

'No. Of course we wouldn't.'

'Then what was he scared of?' Cooper asked.

'If the unit failed and we knew it failed, Wes was afraid we'd try to make him see how hopeless and insane it was. And he knew we'd probably convince him and then all his hope would be gone. And he wanted to hang onto that, Johnny. He wanted to hang onto his hope even when there wasn't any left.'

'That doesn't matter now,' said Cooper. 'What counts is that he'll come back. I can feel it in my bones.'

And here's another case, thought Hudson, of hope begging to be allowed to go on living.

God, he thought, I wish I could be that blind!

'Wes is working on it right now,' said Cooper confidently.

XIV

He was. Not he alone, but a thousand others, working desperately, knowing that the time was short, working not alone for two men trapped in time, but for the peace they all had dreamed about—that the whole world had