t the slightest vibration
unbalanced its adjustment. Once the materials were gathered and blended
so they could not separated, I had a permanent bridge into the other
worlds. The machine and its incredible power were no longer needed.

"You must remember that the three universes occupy the same space, so
that spatially they are not separated at all. Their separation was
temporal, and at right angles to the path from the past into the future.
The attracting forces of the atoms had to be directed across this plane
of time by the machine. When that took place the materials had to be
brought together so that the three substances blended would cohere. Once
they were brought into that state the bridge was established. The bridge
is anchored at this end in the matter of our universe and at the other
two ends in the matter of those universes, just as the bridge above this
building is anchored on this side to the matter of the bank of this side
of the river, and on the other to the matter there."

"And you just have to walk across?" Hute asked.

"That's all there is to it," Carl replied casually.

"And," Hute's eyes took on a crafty gleam. "A time machine in one of
these other universes could carry me to any point in the future without
danger it might have encountered in this one, such as an atom bomb
dropped on the space it would have been in here?"

"That's correct," Carl agreed. "If you will look through the telescope
you will see my aides already nearing completion on the time machine."

Hute placed his eyes to the telescope. The scene that appeared was quite
a normal one. The landscaping was different in many ways. The vegetation
was prolific and of strange forms. But for a considerable area the
ground was flat, meeting the surface of the ordinary world only at the
one spot where the tri-matter block was anchored.

A dozen workmen were busy on the conventional time machine. Hute could
see that a few more days would see it completed. He took his eyes away,
satisfied.

* * * * *

The Leader stood before the intricate panel. It was located in a deep
subterranean room, safe from all attack. He knew that there were other
similar panels in countries all over the planet, different only in one
respect.

The hundreds of buttons on his panel were set to send robot rockets
roaring toward predetermined targets. In a second he could end the long
war by a rapid series of pushes on buttons. The en