the ships of the ground expedition up the river, hugging the tree
tops closely, had run the gauntlet of the American long-gunners who were
busily shooting at the other Han fleet, high in the air to the
southwest, and about half of them had landed before their ships were
robbed of their power. The other half crashed, taking some 10,000 or
12,000 Han troops to destruction with them. But from those which had
landed safely, emerged the 10,000 who now were the sole survivors of
the city, and who took refuge in wooded fastnesses of the Adirondacks.

* * * * *

The Americans with their immensely greater mobility, due to their
jumping belts and their familiarity with the forest, had them ringed in
within twenty-four hours.

But owing to the speed of the maneuvers, the lines were not as tightly
drawn as they might have been, and there was considerable scattering of
both American and Han units. The Hans could make only the weakest
short-range use of their newly developed disintegrator-ray field units,
since they had only distant sources of power-broadcast on which to draw.
On the other hand, the Americans could use their explosive rockets only
sparingly for fear of hitting one another.

So the battle was finished in a series of desperate hand-to-hand
encounters in the ravines and mountain slopes of the district.

The Mifflins and Altoonas, themselves from rocky, mountainous sections,
gave a splendid account of themselves in this fighting, leaping to the
craggy slopes above the Hans, and driving them down into the ravines,
where they could safely concentrate on them the fire of depressed rocket
guns.

The Susquannas, with their great inertron shields, which served them
well against the weak rays of the Hans, pressed forward irresistibly
every time they made a contact with a Han unit, their short-range rocket
guns sending a hail of explosive destruction before them.

But the Delawares, with their smaller shields, inertron leg-guards and
helmets, and their ax-guns, made faster work of it. They would rush the
Hans, shooting from their shields as they closed in, and finish the
business with their ax-blades and the small rocket guns that formed the
handles of their axes.

It was my own unit of Wyomings, equipped with bayonet guns not unlike
the rifles of the First World War, that took the most terrible toll from
the Hans.

They advanced at the double, laying a continuous barrage before them as