thers filled and lighted pipes. The Toon Leader reprimed his pistol,
then holstered it, took off his belt and laid it aside, an example the
others followed.

They drank ceremoniously, and then seated themselves at the table. As
they did, two more men came into the room; they were introduced as
Alexander Barrett, the gunsmith, and Stanley Markovitch, the
distiller.

"You come, then, from the west?" the Toon Leader began by asking.

"Are you from Utah?" the gunsmith interrupted, suspiciously.

"Why, no; we're from Arizona. A place called Fort Ridgeway," Loudons
said.

The others nodded, in the manner of people who wish to conceal
ignorance; it was obvious that none of them had ever heard of Fort
Ridgeway, or Arizona either.

"We've been in what used to be Utah," Altamont said. "There's nobody
there but a few Indians, and a few whites who are even less
civilized."

"You say you come from a fort? Then the wars aren't over, yet?" Sarge
Hughes asked.

"The wars have been over for a long time. You know how terrible they
were. You know how few in all the country were left alive," Loudons
said.

"None that we know of, beside ourselves and the Scowrers until you
came," the Toon Leader said.

"We have found only a few small groups, in the whole country, who have
managed to save anything of the Old Times. Most of them lived in
little villages and cultivated land. A few had horses, or cows. None,
that we have ever found before, made guns and powder for themselves.
But they remembered that they were men, and did not eat one another.
Whenever we find a group of people like this, we try to persuade them
to let us help them."

"Why?" the Toon Leader asked. "Why do you do this for people you've
never met before? What do you want from them--from us--in return for
your help?" He was speaking to Altamont, rather than to Loudons; it
seemed obvious that he believed Altamont to be the leader and Loudons
the subordinate.

* * * * *

"Because we're trying to bring back the best things of the Old Times,"
Altamont told him. "Look; you've had troubles, here. So have we, many
times. Years when the crops failed; years of storms, or floods;
troubles with these beast-men in the woods. And you were alone, as we
were, with no one to help. We want to put all men who are still men in
touch with one another, so that they can help each other in trouble,
and work together. If this isn't done soon, everything w