and
valley, with a secondary line of heavy batteries, moved by small
airships from peak to peak, following along the ridges somewhat behind
the valley forces.

Hallwell had determined to withdraw our southern wing, pivoting it back
to face the outflanking Han force on that side, which had already worked
its way well down in back of our line.

In the ultronophone council which we held at once, each Boss tuning in
on Hallwell's band, though remaining with his unit, Wilma and I pleaded
for a vigorous attack rather than a defensive maneuver. Our suggestion
was to divide the American forces into three divisions, with all the
swoopers forming a special reserve, and to advance with a rush on the
three Han forces behind a rolling barrage.

But the best we could do was to secure permission to make such an attack
with our Wyomings, if we wished, to serve as a diversion while the lines
were reforming. And two of the southern Gangs on the west flank, which
were eager to get at the enemy, received the same permission.

The rest of the army fumed at the caution of the council, but it spoke
well for their discipline that they did not take things in their own
hands, for in the eyes of those forest men who had been hounded for
centuries, the chance to spring at the throats of the Hans outweighed
all other considerations.

So, as the council signed off, Wilma and I turned to the eager faces
that surrounded us, and issued our orders.

* * * * *

In a moment the air was filled with leaping figures as the men and girls
shot away over the tree tops and up the mountain sides in the deployment
movement.

A group of our engineers threw themselves headlong toward a cave across
the valley, where they had rigged out a powerful electrono plant
operating from atomic energy. And a few moments later the little
portable receiver, the Intelligence Boss used to pick up the enemy
messages, began to emit such ear-splitting squeals and howls that he
shut it off. Our heterodyne or "radio-scrambling" broadcast had gone
into operation, emitting impulses of constantly varying wave-length over
the full broadcast range and heterodyning the Han communications into
futility.

In a little while our scouts came leaping down the valley from the
north, and our air balls now were hovering above the Han lines,
operators at the control boards near-by painstakingly picking up the
pictures of the Han squads struggling down the val