out and cut some logs."

"A twelve-foot log is heavy. And how are we going to get that big
a log uphill?"

"We drag it."

"We try to, you mean."

"Maybe we could fix up a cart," said Adams, after thinking a
moment.

"Out of what?" Cooper asked.

"Rollers, maybe. We could cut some and roll the logs up here."

"That would work on level ground," Hudson said. "It wouldn't work
to roll a log uphill. It would get away from us. Someone might get
killed."

"The logs would have to be longer than twelve feet, anyhow,"
Cooper put in. "You'd have to set them in a hole and that takes
away some footage."

"Why not the tripod principle?" Hudson offered. "Fasten three logs
at the top and raise them."

"That's a gin-pole, a primitive derrick. It'd still have to be
longer than twelve feet. Fifteen, sixteen, maybe. And how are we
going to hoist three sixteen-foot logs? We'd need a block and
tackle."

"There's another thing," said Cooper. "Part of those logs might
just be beyond the effective range of the force-field. Part of
them would have to--_have to_, mind you--move in time and part
couldn't. That would set up a stress...."

"Another thing about it," added Hudson, "is that we'd travel with
the logs. I don't want to come out in another time with a bunch of
logs flying all around me."

"Cheer up," Adams told them. "Maybe the unit won't work, anyhow."

VII

The general sat alone in his office and held his head between his
hands. The fools, he thought, the goddam knuckle-headed fools! Why
couldn't they see it as clearly as he did?

For fifteen years now, as head of Project Mastodon, he had lived
with it night and day and he could see all the possibilities
as clearly as if they had been actual fact. Not military
possibilities alone, although as a military man, he naturally
would think of those first.

The hidden bases, for example, located within the very strongholds
of potential enemies--within, yet centuries removed in time. Many
centuries removed and only seconds distant.

He could see it all: The materialization of the fleets; the swift,
devastating blow, then the instantaneous retreat into the
fastnesses of the past. Terrific destruction, but not a ship lost
nor a man.

Except that if you had the bases, you need never strike the blow.
If you had the bases and let the enemy know you had them, there
would never be the provocation.

And on the home front, you'd have air-raid shelters that would be