on impact, without a particle of
damage.

On the carrier, the Greek general said mildly to Coburn that the
Invaders had used their power very strangely. After stopping an invasion
of Greece, they had prevented an atomic-bomb explosion which would have
killed some hundreds of thousands of people. And it was strange that
the turtle-shaped ship that had attacked the air transport was so
clumsily handled as compared with this similar craft which had zestfully
dodged all the missiles a fleet could throw at it.

Coburn thought hard. "I think I see," he said slowly. "You mean, they're
here and they know all they need to know. But instead of coming out into
the open, they're making governments recognize their existence. They're
letting the rulers of Earth know they can't be resisted. But we did
knock off one of their ships last night!"

The Greek general pointedly said nothing. Coburn caught his meaning. The
fleet, firing point-blank, had not destroyed its target. The ship last
night had seemed to fall into a cloud bank and explode. But nobody had
seen it blow up. Maybe it hadn't.

"Humoring us!" realized Coburn. "They don't want to destroy our
civilization, so they'll humor us. But they want our governments to know
that they can do as they please. If our governments know we can't
resist, they think we'll surrender. But they're wrong."

The Greek general looked at him enigmatically.

"We've still got one trick left," said Coburn. "Atomic bombs. And if
they fail, we can still get killed fighting them another way."

There was a heavy, droning noise far away. It increased and drew nearer.
It was a multi-engined plane which came from the west and settled down,
and hovered over the water and touched and instantly created a spreading
wake of foam.

The fleet was back at anchor then. It was enclosed in the most beautiful
combination of city and scene that exists anywhere. Beyond the city the
blunted cone of Vesuvius rose. In the city, newspaper vendors shrilly
hawked denunciations of the American ships because of the danger that
their atom bombs might explode. Well outside the harbor, a Navy crew of
experts worked to make quite impossible the detonation of atomic bombs
in a stubby tramp-steamer which had--plausibly, at least--been sent to
make those same newspapers' prophecies of disaster come true.

* * * * *

A long, long time passed, while consultations took place to which Coburn
was not i