Gerry said, "but why is it that your
mobile forces are armed only with primitive weapons like bows and
arrows?"

"Because we cannot possibly mine and produce enough of the alta-radium
to do more than supply the defences of the city and of the barrier
forts. The possession of the secret of that ray has kept our borders
free from the Scaly Ones except for isolated raids like the one you
encountered today, but we cannot arm our troops with the ray."

"And the gas-guns of the Scaly Ones?"

"They are a good weapon--but we have not the materials to manufacture
them on this side of the border."

"Sounds like what we used to call a 'balance of power' in the days when
Earth was torn by wars," Gerry said with a smile. "But tell me one thing
more. I notice that in this land you speak an archaic form of Martian."

"The Tempora-scope can tell you the story better than my words."

Rupin-Sang nodded to his attendant, and a cloth cover was removed from a
broad metal disc that was attached to some kind of a machine. He touched
a control lever, and the mechanism began to hum. Blinds were dropped
down over the windows, so that the room was filled with a murky
twilight. The humming sound grew steadily louder. Now the metal disc
glowed with a brilliant light. Momentarily its polished surface clouded
over, as though obscured by a thin fog, and then the mists drifted
aside.

* * * * *

Before them they saw the Universe as it was in the youth of the world,
when roaring volcanoes were still active on the Moon and the rings of
Saturn were just drifting out from the girth of that spinning sphere. It
was as though they were looking out through a circular window somewhere
in the sky. The machine gave a perfect illusion of reality, not merely
tri-dimensional but touching all the senses as well. They could hear the
roar of new-made satellites spinning off into the void, and the rush of
burning gases. They could smell the scent of molten rock.

Then time passed! The planets began to cool. The mud-flats steamed under
a cloudy sun, the mountains shouldered their way upward through the
tilted and riven fields. On the edges of inland seas, the hot shallows
were filled with slimy things that crawled with their bellies dragging.
They could hear the ripple of the waters, and the rustle of warm winds
blowing through the flowerless and fern-like forests. Gerry could smell
the rank odors of the steaming and primitive jun