Orbiwah few and helpless."
One of his hands made a graceful motion. "I have come to return theland to the Orbiwah, to restore him to the greatness of his fathers.Once more the land shall be alive with game, the rivers filled withfish. Once more shall the Orbiwah hunt with the weapons of hisfathers. I have spoken."
"From whence do you come?" I asked.
He pointed dramatically toward the sky. "From a great distance. Upthere are many worlds."
"Tell me of your world," I said.
The telling took a long time but not a word of it was dull. Accordingto Lo-as-ro, his world was a planet revolving about one of the starsin the Big Dipper. It was slightly smaller than Earth, with about thesame climates and development of life. It was peopled with only onerace, the Orbiwah, who lived much as the Indians in America did beforethe arrival of the white man. Recently spaceships from another planetin the same solar system had landed on the Orbiwah world. Thesenewcomers were friendly, had no thought of conquest, and possessed ascience and culture of amazing proportions.
* * * * *
From them the Orbiwah learned of a planet on which were men of theirown kind. Lo-as-ro, fired by the thought of establishing contact withpeople like himself, had borrowed spaceships manned by robots andcrossed the void to Earth. For weeks they had hovered in ouratmosphere, at first saddened, then angered, by the fate meted out tothe Indians.
Since the spaceships were able to move through Time into the past,Lo-as-ro hit on the idea of going back to the days when the Indian wasstill in control of most of America. With the power at his control hecould force the white man from the continent and restore the land tothose who owned it.
Arriving near the close of the Eighteenth Century, he found a sizeableencampment of Indians, brought the ship down among them, and summonedthe chiefs to a Council of War, where he outlined to them his plan. Tohis astonishment he found the chiefs suspicious of outside help andconfident that they could defeat the white man alone. In vain didLo-as-ro explain that they were doomed; they could not, or would not,believe that he had visited the future. He offered to take them aheadand let them see for themselves--an offer that was quickly refused.
Whereupon Lo-as-ro decided to return to the Present and wrest the landfrom the white man and hand it over to the downtrodden remnants of aonce-powerful race. It was on that return trip that Wetzel had arrivedin the present century.
When Lo-as-ro finished, I leaned back against the side of the ship andlit a cigarette, bringing a startled grunt from the chief. I said,"You cannot defeat the white man, Lo-as-ro. He has weapons such as youhave never dreamed: machines that can throw things that explode andkill hundreds of braves at one time, machines that travel through theair as does the one you came in, things that can wipe out all lifewithin a circle as wide as a brave can ride around in one day on afast horse.
"No, noble Lo-as-ro. Return to your world and leave this one to thewhite man. He took it long ago and he will never give it up. I havespoken."
The chief of the Orbiwah smiled grimly. "In the ship in which Iarrived on your world is a small machine. It is working for me now.Within its reach no weapon is useful, no explosion can take place, nosignal can be sent. Only Man is not touched by this machine, but whenit works he has no weapons with which to fight. Each hour theinfluence of this machine widens. Soon all this land will be helpless.Then the robots will take charge and those who oppose them will beslain."
I thought of the "dead spot" I had first heard about on the newscastthe night before, and how it was steadily growing. I remembered theslain farmer with the missing scalp, the two companies of soldiershelpless without radio, guns and transportation. I thought of amechanized America helpless before a few score of these spaceships ...and I knew that counter-violence would be useless.
* * * * *
"Give the country back to the Indians!" The cry of the over-burdenedcitizen. It seemed it was about to come to that!
For a long time I sat there, thinking, trying to hit on an answer thatwould save my country. And when the answer finally stirred at the backof my mind, it was so completely bizarre that I almost missed itentirely....
"Noble Lo-as-ro," I said, "I must return to the Great White Father andtell him what I have learned. I will tell him that there is nothing tobe done to oppose the Chief of the Kornesh. Within a few hours I willreturn with his reply."
Lo-as-ro inclined his fine head in assent. "Let it be so."
"Until my return," I said, "let the influence of the machine draw backuntil it holds helpless only a small section of land about your ship.Only in this way will I be able to return quickly to the White Chief."
Again Lo-as-ro agreed. I took my leave of him ceremoniously, and a fewminutes later Wetzel and I were hurrying back toward the highway.
* * * * *
Four hours later I was on my way back, this time with four companions.The plane landed us at the edge of the newly set "dead spot" and thefive of us forced our way through the forest until we reached theclearing where the spaceship still crouched.
A silent group of Indians watched us as we crossed the open ground.This time the two robots flanking the doorway did not leave theirposts. As I came up the ramp with my companions, Lo-as-ro appeared inthe doorway of the ship.
He eyed me and the others without expression. I said, "Noble Lo-as-ro,I have brought with me four of my world's Orbiwah. They have come tohear your plan for them and their people. I have told them nothing ofwhat you said to me, only that you have come from another world andare of their blood."
One by one I presented my companions. Yellow Arm was Johnny Armin, anold school friend of mine; Iron Eagle, with whom I had spent a year inKorea, had his telephone listed under the name of Luke Riegel; StrongWind was Sidney Storm, whom I had met while spending a year inSouthern California; and Lone Pine, known as Lionel Patterson, lived afew doors down the street from me in Washington and shot eighteenholes any day in the low seventies.
The color of their skins, the unmistakable cast of their features,made up the only passport they needed. At the chief's invitation wesquatted in a rude circle at the top of the ramp, and the peace-pipewas brought out and passed around.
Presently Lo-as-ro began to speak. The magnificent voice rolled out intones like a cathedral organ, explaining how the American Indian wasto assume his rightful place in a world of his own. It was a vividpicture, painted by an orator equal to any of the almost legendaryIndian speakers, and they don't come any better.
Unfortunately I was the only one present who could understand him.
* * * * *
When it was over and Lo-as-ro was smiling in confident expectation oftheir gratified excitement, Johnny Armin gave me a baffled glance."What the hell was _that_ all about, Sam?"
I said, "You guys don't know how lucky you are. The chief, here, isgoing to fix it up for you to go back to the good old days. Be noblered men. No more taxes, no more taxis. Live out in the fresh air,sleep under the star-studded sky, drink the unchlorinated springwater."
"_What!_"
"You heard me. And he can do it, too. He's got the tools to flattenthe country."
They stared at me and at each other, horror and anger hardening theirfaces. Lo-as-ro had stopped smiling and was glancing about the circlein obvious bewilderment.
"You mean he's doing all that for _us_?" Storm demanded.
"For all Indians," I said. "Free them from the iron heel of theoppressor, and all that."
"Nuts, brother!" Iron Eagle snapped. "Tell him I'm a graduate ofCarnegie Tech, make twenty-five grand a year with Standard Oil, andvote the Republican ticket. If he thinks for a goddam minute I'm goingto chasing around on a pinto pony hunting buffalo, he's got rocks inhis head!"
"And that goes for me--double!" Lone Pine growled. "I never heardanything so screwy!"
I repeated what they had said, putting it into words Lo-as-ro couldunderstand. He had the l
ook of a man who couldn't believe his ears."They speak with stupid tongues," he cried. "Do they deny the blood oftheir fathers?"
"They live as they want to live, noble chief," I said. "They aregrateful for your wish to help but they ask me to decline the offer."
He came to his feet with a bound, his lean face hardening into acopper mask of anger. "These are not true Orbiwah!" he thundered."These are as women, soft with idleness and pleasure, weakened bytheir white conquerors. The land is not for them; it is for thoseforced to live in degradation and squalor, dying of hunger anddisease, ignored by the white chiefs. It is they who shall be givenback the ways of their fathers, that they may become a great Orbiwahnation once more. I have spoken!"
* * * * *
"Look at