am of scientists back here and a movie company would
cough up plenty to use this place as a location for a caveman
epic. But it wouldn't be worth a thing to either of them if they
couldn't tell about it.

"Now if we could have gotten recognition as a nation, we'd have
been all set. We could make our own laws and regulations and be
able to enforce them. We could bring in settlers and establish
trade. We could exploit our natural resources. It would all be
legal and aboveboard. We could tell who we were and where we were
and what we had to offer."

"We aren't licked yet," said Adams. "There's a lot that we can do.
Those river hills are covered with ginseng. We can each dig a
dozen pounds a day. There's good money in the root."

"Ginseng root," Cooper said, "is peanuts. We need _big_ money."

"Or we could trap," offered Adams. "The place is alive with
beaver."

"Have you taken a good look at those beaver? They're about the
size of a St. Bernard."

"All the better. Think how much just one pelt would bring."

"No dealer would believe that it was beaver. He'd think you were
trying to pull a fast one on him. And there are only a few states
that allow beaver to be trapped. To sell the pelts--even if you
could--you'd have to take out licenses in each of those states."

"Those mastodon carry a lot of ivory," said Cooper. "And if we
wanted to go north, we'd find mammoths that would carry even
more...."

"And get socked into the jug for ivory smuggling?"

They sat, all three of them, staring at the fire, not finding
anything to say.

The moaning complaint of a giant hunting cat came from somewhere
up the river.

IV

Hudson lay in his sleeping bag, staring at the sky. It bothered
him a lot. There was not one familiar constellation, not one star
that he could name with any certainty. This juggling of the stars,
he thought, emphasized more than anything else in this ancient
land the vast gulf of years which lay between him and the Earth
where he had been--or would be--born.

A hundred and fifty thousand years, Adams had said, give or take
ten thousand. There just was no way to know. Later on, there might
be. A measurement of the stars and a comparison with their
positions in the twentieth century might be one way of doing it.
But at the moment, any figure could be no more than a guess.

The time machine was not something that could be tested for
calibration or performance. As a matter of fact, there _was_