g the Atlantic seaboard of the United
States. For the rest, there is no data upon which one may
even guess.

As a matter of actuality, in spite of his dominating force, the
capacity for leadership which radiated from him, there was a very
naive, fatuous quality to this strange ruler. Or at least, Don and I
thought so now. As the details of his plot against our Earth world
unfolded to us, what we could do to circumvent him ran like an
undercurrent across the background of our consciousness. He knew
nothing, or almost nothing of our Earth weapons. What conditions
would govern this unprecedented warfare into which he was
plunging--of all that he was totally ignorant.

* * * * *

But, we were speedily to learn that he was not as fatuous as he at
first seemed. These two worlds--occupying the same space and
invisible to each other--would be plunged into war. And Tako
realized that no one, however astute, of either world could predict
what might happen. He was plunging ahead, quite conscious of his
ignorance. And he realized that there was a vast detailed knowledge
of the Earth world which we had and he did not. He would use us as
the occasion arose to explain what might not be understandable to
him.

I could envisage now so many things of such a character. The range
of warships and artillery. The weapons a plane might use. The
topography of New York City and its environs.... And the more Tako
needed us, the less we had to fear from him personally. We would
have the power to protect Jane from him--if we could sufficiently
persuade him he needed our good will. Ultimately we might plunge his
enterprise into disaster, and with Jane escape from him--that too I
could envisage as a possibility.

The mind flings far afield very rapidly! But I recall that it
occurred to me also that I might be displaying many of the fatuous
qualities I was crediting to Tako, by thinking such thoughts!

I have no more than briefly summarized the many things Tako told us
during that hour while we strode across the dim rocky uplands toward
his mobilized army awaiting its departure for the scene of the main
attack. Some of his forces had already gone ahead. Several bands of
men were making visual contact with the seacoast of the southern
United States. It was all experimentation. They were heading for New
York. They would wait there, and not materialize until this main
army had joined them.

We saw present