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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75427 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                    The Incredible Slingshot Bombs
+
+                       By ROBERT MOORE WILLIAMS
+
+              It was only a slingshot, but it hurled more
+              death than a thousand-pound bomb. Where did
+               Tommy Sonofagun get those deadly pellets?
+
+           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
+                       Amazing Stories May 1942.
+         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+[Illustration: Tommy Sonofagun drew back the sling and let fly with a
+pellet.]
+
+
+"You go over to the other ridge," the sheriff said to the two deputies.
+"If he tries to get out that way, stop him. But remember, we want him
+alive, _if we can get him that way_."
+
+I only half heard what the sheriff said. My attention was fully
+occupied by the dogs down in Ten Mile Valley below us. I couldn't see
+them but I could hear them bugling down there in the cedar thickets.
+Baying slowly and mournfully, they were searching for the lost trail. A
+creek ran down the middle of the valley. Probably Tommy Sonofagun had
+crossed the creek and thrown the bloodhounds off his trail. Tommy might
+be a moron but he had enough animal cunning to lose a pack of hounds
+that were after him.
+
+His name wasn't really Tommy Sonofagun. It was Tommy Britten, but the
+loafers around Brock's Tavern had taught him to say that his name was
+Tommy Sonofagun. _They_ thought this was funny.
+
+The sheriff and I watched the two deputies tramp down into Ten Mile
+Valley, but we lost sight of them before they reached the farther
+ridge. The steel towers of an electric high-line ran along this ridge
+for a couple of miles, then dipped down and crossed the valley. The
+transmission line carried current from the big dam about twenty miles
+to the north. When the war first started, there was some fear that
+enemy agents might sabotage this high-line and the sheriff had spent
+most of his time out in the hills guarding it.
+
+The sheriff was a big, raw-boned mountaineer by the name of Tim
+Hoskins. He wore store clothes like they were overalls, he was long and
+lank, and if you took one look at him, you had the instant impression
+he had just enough sense to come in out of the rain, and no more. If
+you took a second look and noticed the slow cautious way he talked and
+the slow but damned sure way he moved, and especially if you looked at
+his eyes, which never faltered from the gaze of any man, you would be
+likely to decide you were damned glad you lived in a country where they
+had sheriffs like this.
+
+"What do you make of it, sheriff?" I asked.
+
+He was carrying his left arm in a bloody sling. Before he answered he
+adjusted the sling so his arm hung a little easier. Then he shook his
+head. "I don't know, Ben. I just don't know."
+
+I'm Ben Hopper, and for the past four years I've been owner and
+publisher of the Summit Press. I'm also editor of this paper,
+advertising manager, circulation manager, business manager, proof
+reader, and copy boy. The Press is strictly a one man country paper,
+but it prints the news, which was why I was out here in the hills.
+There was news out here. Maybe it was mighty big news, too.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was going to ask some more questions but the clatter of an
+over-worked motor interrupted me and I turned in time to see a car
+banging up the gravel road toward us. It was a gray Ford coupe and I
+needed only one glance to recognize it and to know who was driving it.
+Ellen Briscoe. Uncle Sam sent her out here to try to teach the people
+on the hill farms how to keep from starving to death. The Relief Lady,
+the mountaineers called her. She was coming up the hill road like she
+didn't know there was any such thing as tire rationing. Steam popped
+out of the radiator as the car reached us. She was out of it almost
+before it stopped rolling.
+
+"Hello, Ben," she said to me.
+
+"Ellen, you got no business being here," I protested.
+
+She ignored me. She had business wherever she wanted to be, which was
+anywhere anybody was in trouble. "Sheriff, what's this all about?" she
+demanded.
+
+Hoskins scraped a toe against the rocky ground. "I--I don't know for
+sure, Miss Ellen," he said.
+
+"I heard about it in Summit," she said. "And I came right up here. They
+told me in Summit that you had organized a posse and gone after Tommy.
+Sheriff, what has Tommy done?"
+
+Those were the words she used. The tone of her voice said more than the
+words.
+
+The sheriff wore out a lot of shoe leather before he answered. "Sim
+Brock swore out a warrant," he said at last. "I don't have any choice
+about serving it."
+
+"Sim Brock swore out a warrant, did he?" Fire flashed from her eyes.
+"Don't you know those loafers down at the roadhouse Brock runs are
+always teasing Tommy?"
+
+"I know, Miss Ellen," the sheriff said uncomfortably.
+
+"Were they teasing him and did he strike at one of them? Is that why
+you've got this posse after Tommy?"
+
+"No," the sheriff said. "They might have been teasing him before it
+happened but I don't know that they were. The warrant charged Tommy
+with blowing up Brock's barn."
+
+"Blowing up his barn!"
+
+"That was the way Brock swore out the warrant."
+
+"And you believed Sim Brock?" Ellen demanded. "Don't you know he's a
+liar and a no-good scoundrel. Don't you know that nobody can believe
+anything Brock says?"
+
+"Yes," the sheriff slowly said. "But the barn was blown up. I went to
+look. I didn't put any faith in what Brock said, but the warrant had
+been sworn out and I had to act. So I went looking for Tommy--"
+
+"With a gun in your hand, I suppose?" she said sharply.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He looked at her then, just glanced up, but his gaze didn't falter.
+"You know better than that, Miss Ellen," he said.
+
+She flushed. Her temper had been running away with her and she knew it.
+"I'm sorry," she said. "What happened?"
+
+"I didn't have much trouble finding Tommy," the sheriff explained. "He
+was crossing a field when I spotted him. I stopped my car and walked
+toward him--_and he took a shot at me_."
+
+Down in this country you may do a little private feuding with your
+neighbors but there is one thing you don't do. You don't shoot at the
+sheriff.
+
+"He shot at you!" Ellen gasped. "Where did he get a gun?"
+
+"He didn't have a gun."
+
+Ellen's face showed confusion. "Then how did he shoot at you?" she
+demanded.
+
+"With that slingshot he always carries," the sheriff said.
+
+Tommy's favorite weapon, in fact his only weapon, was a rubber
+slingshot. A pocket full of pebbles and a sling was all he needed to be
+happy.
+
+"Sheriff," Ellen's voice was hot again. "Just because he shot at you
+with a sling is no reason why you should call out a posse and run him
+down like a mad dog?"
+
+"No," the sheriff admitted. "Especially since he didn't hit me."
+
+"He didn't hit you! And you--"
+
+"He hit my car," the sheriff said.
+
+Ellen's face blazed with anger. "So what? A few more nicks in that
+rattle-trap of yours won't make any difference."
+
+"No, Miss Ellen," the sheriff said, his voice dry and tense. "Not any
+more."
+
+"Not any more! _What are you talking about?_"
+
+"Not any car any more," the sheriff said. "It blew up."
+
+"Blew up!" the girl gasped.
+
+"Sky high," the sheriff said. "Chunks of the motor landed a quarter of
+a mile away. Piece of hot metal hit me--" He looked down at the bloody
+sling holding his arm. "That's where I got this."
+
+I had already seen what was left of his car, which was mostly a hole
+in the ground. A case of dynamite wouldn't have blown it into smaller
+pieces.
+
+"I got two reasons for wanting to catch Tommy," the sheriff continued.
+"First, I got a warrant that says I must arrest him. Second, I want to
+look at those pebbles he's shooting out of that slingshot."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+You can damned well bet he wanted to look at those pebbles! So did I.
+If a pebble small enough to be shot out of a sling could blow up a car,
+it was a mighty powerful and mighty important chunk of rock. Think how
+big an explosion a pebble as big as a baseball would make! Think how
+many baseballs could be carried in a bomber!
+
+_What was Tommy Sonofagun shooting in his sling?_
+
+"I just can't believe it," Ellen said, when she had recovered from her
+surprise. "Tommy didn't cause those explosions. Your car just happened
+to blow up at that moment. Tommy didn't do it. He couldn't have done
+it. It's--it's impossible."
+
+The sheriff didn't argue with her and neither did I. We were both
+watching what was happening down in Ten Mile Valley. Those bloodhounds,
+after being baffled for a long time, had suddenly hit a hot trail.
+
+Then Tommy appeared. He dashed across a glade in the cedar thickets,
+running half bent over like some ungainly animal. He was so far away he
+was just a little black dot but I saw him look back over his shoulder
+at the dogs.
+
+They were right behind him. I heard them break into an excited bugling
+as they saw their prey and started running by sight instead of by scent.
+
+Tommy frantically ran into the cedars.
+
+The dogs raced across the glade after him. There were four of them,
+running in a bunch, and giving tongue as they ran.
+
+_They vanished in a puff of white light._
+
+It happened almost too fast for the mind to grasp it. One second four
+bloodhounds were running across the glade, the next second there was an
+intense puff of light, the third second the whole glade seemed to take
+wings and fly up into the air, the fourth second--
+
+_Boom!_
+
+The sound of the explosion reached us. A ball of smoke leaped upward
+and the cedar trees bent over in a blast of air. In the silence that
+followed came the faint clatter of stones falling back to the ground.
+There wasn't another bark from those dogs. There weren't any dogs left
+to do any barking.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sheriff's face turned a pasty gray. I believe from the bottom of my
+heart that he is scared of nothing, that he doesn't know the meaning
+of fear, but when that explosion came his face turned gray. He glanced
+once at Ellen as if he was asking her if this confirmed the wisdom of
+his decision to send a posse after Tommy Sonofagun. So far as I was
+concerned, it did. Then he started walking away.
+
+"Where are we going?" I called after him.
+
+"Down there," he said, nodding toward the glade where the explosion had
+taken place. "I reckon maybe I better get Tommy, if I can."
+
+Ellen and I stayed on top of the ridge and watched. Ellen hadn't spoken
+a word since the explosion but from the way she was holding on to my
+arm, I knew how scared she was. I could feel her tremble.
+
+The sheriff vanished among the cedars down below but I knew he was
+down there somewhere stalking Tommy Sonofagun. I also knew that other
+deputies were moving up from below while still another group had
+probably cut across the valley up above. A grim trap was closing.
+
+"What can it possibly mean?" Ellen whispered.
+
+"It means you had better go home," I answered.
+
+She wouldn't go. She was the Relief Lady and Tommy was somebody who
+might need help.
+
+It was already late in the afternoon. We stayed there on top of the
+ridge while darkness fell and waited for--anything. I shivered every
+time I thought of the explosion that had killed those four dogs. A hand
+grenade would not have caused so much destruction. There wasn't any
+chance of coincidence either. Those dogs had been after Tommy and he
+had destroyed them.
+
+"Ben," said Ellen suddenly. "We've got to find Tommy."
+
+"Huh?" Even the idea startled me.
+
+"We've got to find him before the posse does. Those men are scared and
+they won't take any chances with him. Even the sheriff is scared. If
+they find Tommy and he tries to run--and that's what he will try to
+do--they'll shoot him. Ben, we've got to find him first, to save his
+life."
+
+It took some time for this to sink in. And when it did sink in, I
+didn't like it. I tried to laugh it off. "A fine chance we have of
+finding him when this posse can't."
+
+"I can find him. I know where he is."
+
+"What?"
+
+"He has a cave about a mile from here. Every time he gets in trouble he
+runs there and hides. That's where he was going when those dogs almost
+caught him, to his cave. If we go there, we're almost certain to find
+him."
+
+"And get ourselves blown into mince-meat like those dogs!" I protested.
+
+"He won't--do anything to me. He knows me. I'm his friend."
+
+"Nuts, baby. We're not going."
+
+"All right," she said defiantly. "I'll go alone." She started walking
+away.
+
+"All right," I groaned. "I'll go with you. But you're taking an unfair
+advantage of me, and I know it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The cave was in a ravine that led off from Ten Mile Valley. By the time
+we reached the place the moon was up but there wasn't much light down
+in the bottom of the ravine. Clumps of cedars grew everywhere, making
+dark blotches behind which anything might be lurking. A darker blotch
+was the mouth of the cave.
+
+"T--Tommy," Ellen called.
+
+There was no answer. I stood there in the darkness and wished to hell I
+was back in my office setting this story in type. Ellen was clinging to
+me so hard she was about to pull my arm off.
+
+A shadow seemed to move in the mouth of the cave.
+
+"Tommy," Ellen said quickly. "Don't be afraid. We've brought you some
+candy, Tommy. Don't you want some candy?"
+
+Silence. A wind went whispering through the cedars, setting my teeth to
+chattering.
+
+"We have some candy, Tommy?"
+
+There was a tiny creak, as of somebody shifting his weight. It came
+from the cave. I did not in the least doubt but that Tommy Sonofagun
+was standing there looking out at us, slingshot in hand, trying to make
+up his poor mind if we were after him. At this moment my memory chose
+to remind me of what had happened to those bloodhounds. They had been
+after him too. Anything that was after him he would shoot at.
+
+Cold sweat was dripping from under my arms and running down my body.
+
+"Why don't you come down and get the candy we brought you?" Ellen asked.
+
+"Scared," a dull, choked voice said from the mouth of the cave.
+
+Tommy was there all right. He was watching us. He wanted candy. But he
+was scared.
+
+He wasn't a tenth as scared as I was! Dillinger with a pistol would not
+have been near as dangerous as this half man who lurked in the cave
+mouth. You could talk to Dillinger. He wouldn't shoot without a reason.
+You could talk to Tommy but he wouldn't understand.
+
+"You needn't be scared," Ellen said. "We won't hurt you. Don't you
+remember all the candy I've brought you? Don't you remember that new
+pair of overalls I brought you last month? Weren't they fine overalls,
+Tommy?"
+
+"Uh-huh. Nice. Wearin' 'em now." He didn't sound quite so hostile.
+
+"Come and get the candy," Ellen said, opening her purse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It took her five minutes to get him down out of that cave. Those were
+five minutes of hell for me. Ellen's voice showed no trace of concern,
+no fear, no worry. Listening to her, you would have thought she hadn't
+a care in the world. Only the way she was holding on to my arm showed
+me how scared she was.
+
+"Here," she said, handing him a candy bar.
+
+He ate it, paper cover, tin foil, and all. He didn't look at me. He saw
+me all right but he didn't trust me so he didn't glance in my direction.
+
+"How did you make the big noises?" Ellen quietly asked.
+
+"Huh? Big noises?"
+
+He sounded scared again. I took a firm grip on a lungful of air and
+prepared to hold on to it.
+
+"The big booms," Ellen said. "You know, like firecrackers, only lots
+louder. They sure were fine noises."
+
+"You like 'em, huh? Want hear more big noises, huh? Fourth of July
+noises, huh?"
+
+My eyes had become accustomed to the darkness and I saw him lift his
+arms and stretch his slingshot rubbers. "Want more noises, huh?" he
+asked proudly.
+
+"Not now, Tommy," Ellen said quickly, a sudden catch in her voice. "Let
+me see one of the firecrackers that make the big noises."
+
+"Huh?" He lowered his arms but he held the sling ready. His grunt was
+full of suspicion.
+
+"I'll give you another candy bar for one of your firecrackers," Ellen
+said quickly. She opened her purse and I heard the rattle of waxed
+paper. "I'll trade you a candy bar for a firecracker. You want another
+candy bar, don't you, Tommy? Remember how good that last candy bar was?"
+
+He remembered all right. His eyes never left the bar of chocolate she
+was holding toward him.
+
+I went right on holding my breath.
+
+"Okay," he said suddenly. "Trade." He took something out of the pocket
+of his sling, dropped it in Ellen's hand, grabbed the candy bar, and
+started eating.
+
+"Flashlight," Ellen whispered to me. To Tommy she said, "We're going
+to turn on a flashlight so we can look at the firecracker. It's a good
+candy bar, isn't it, Tommy?"
+
+My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold the light. Ellen was
+holding the firecracker in the palm of her hand. I took one look at it,
+and I didn't believe my eyes.
+
+It was about the size of a big pea. It wasn't as big as a grape. It
+looked like a small round pebble.
+
+This was the bomb that had caused those terrific explosions!
+
+"Is this what made the big noises?" Ellen asked.
+
+"Sure," Tommy said, stopping eating long enough to talk. "Make big
+boom. Want more? Got plenty." He reached into a pocket of his overalls
+and brought out a handful. "Good shootin' rocks," he said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I just didn't believe it. There are mental limits beyond which the mind
+refuses to function. It was impossible to think that such a tiny pellet
+could cause so much destruction.
+
+I took Tommy's sling, put the pellet in the pocket, stretched the
+rubbers as far as they would go, and released them. I had to see with
+my own eyes, I had to know, I had to be sure.
+
+I damned well found out! Although the explosion took place at least
+seventy-five yards away, it blew me off my feet. A great bulge of flame
+leaped into the sky and the heavens roared with the thunder of the
+sound.
+
+Tommy jumped up and down in excitement. "Big noise! Goody, goody! Want
+more booms?"
+
+"N--nnn--no," I stuttered, picking myself up from the ground.
+
+"Ben, you idiot!" Ellen snapped. "The sheriff will hear that. No,
+Tommy, no more booms right now. Where did you get those firecrackers,
+Tommy? Where did you get them?"
+
+Firecrackers, hell! Those things were the mightiest explosive bombs for
+their weight ever used on earth! In violence they backed TNT right off
+the map. Nitroglycerin was not a tenth as powerful. If a pellet that
+weighed a fraction of an ounce could cause such an explosion, how big
+an explosion would a hundred-pound bomb make?
+
+One bomber could sneak in out of the clouds and smash a city!
+
+One bomb would do the job!
+
+_Where had Tommy Sonofagun gotten those round pebbles that exploded
+with such violence?_
+
+"Candy?" he said questioningly. "More candy?"
+
+"I'll give you a barrel of candy if you will show us where you got
+these things!" I said. I was scared sick. I was remembering Pearl
+Harbor, the _Prince of Wales_, and the _Repulse_. Had bombs such as
+these sent those two gallant ships to the bottom?
+
+If this had happened, how had similar bombs gotten here to the heart
+of America? Where were these round pebbles coming from? Obviously
+Tommy had found them somewhere, but _where_? Who had made them?
+
+"A barrel of candy!" Tommy gasped. "G--gosh!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Grabbing his slingshot from the ground where I had dropped it, he
+started off, motioning us to follow him. Stumbling, following him as
+best we could, he led us straight to one of the transmission line
+towers!
+
+"It was attempted sabotage!" I gasped. "Somebody tried to blow up the
+high-line but their bombs didn't explode. Tommy found their explosives!"
+
+This was a reasonable guess. If one of these big steel towers went
+down, a lot of defense industries that were dependent upon the juice
+flowing through the cables overhead, would have to shut down.
+
+"Got 'em right here," Tommy said.
+
+He shambled toward the legs of the tower, which formed an arch
+overhead. He was holding one of Ellen's hands and I was holding the
+other. We were strung out in a line. I could hear current singing in
+the transmission line as he went under the arch formed by the legs of
+the tower. It was a high, thin, wailing sound, and it meant that juice
+was leaking somewhere.
+
+He stepped through the arch, and vanished.
+
+Ellen, following a step behind him, vanished.
+
+I took another step, which brought me under the arch, _and the tower
+vanished_!
+
+One second it was there over my head, a steel lattice climbing skyward.
+The next second, no tower.
+
+No sky, no stars, no moon. No hillside, no high-line, no night.
+
+My tongue took a running jump and dived down into my throat to hide.
+
+"Wh--wh--wh--what the hell--" I heard my own voice say.
+
+I was in what looked like a big building. On one side was a lot of
+hooded machinery that was clicking softly to itself. I had the fleeting
+impression that this machinery was largely automatic in operation, that
+raw materials were being fed in from some source overhead and finished
+articles were rolling out into a large hopper. A soft blue light came
+from the walls of the building, which seemed to be windowless.
+
+Ellen was standing right in front of me. The only movement about her
+was a flutter of her eye-lids. She seemed to be frozen stiff.
+
+I was pretty well frozen myself. What the devil had happened to us?
+where were we?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mad thoughts were bouncing up and down inside my brain. I had the
+impression I had gone insane.
+
+Tommy wasn't scared. He didn't seem to mind what had happened.
+Something that would scare a man with sense to the verge of hysterics
+had no effect on him. He understood almost nothing about the world in
+which he lived and consequently anything was possible to him. There
+are times when being a moron has its advantages. This was one of those
+times. This building did not astonish Tommy, nor was he perturbed about
+the miraculous way in which we had entered it.
+
+He ran over to the hopper in front of the big machine, thrust both
+hands into it, and came running back to us, his hands held out in front
+of him.
+
+"Firecrackers!" he said exultantly.
+
+He had a double handful of the round explosive pellets. The machine was
+manufacturing them. They were being made right here in this windowless
+building, in Ten Mile Valley.
+
+This was where Tommy had got those incredible bombs. Somehow he had
+stumbled into this hidden place.
+
+He looked expectantly up at me.
+
+"Gimme bar'l of candy?" he said hopefully.
+
+My tongue was still hiding down in my throat as if it was determined
+to have no part in the lies it knew I was going to tell. "S--sure," I
+stuttered. "I'll get the candy for you as soon as we get back to town.
+But Tommy, where are we?"
+
+That was the question! Where were we?
+
+"Huh?" said Tommy. Then he added, in explanation, "We're here!"
+
+Hell, I knew that! What I wanted to know was where _here_ was. I tried
+another tack. "Where did this building, all these machines, where did
+they come from?"
+
+He shrugged. The question was over his head. "Find 'em here," he said.
+He looked hopefully at me. "Candy for Tommy Sonofagun?"
+
+His little mind ran on one track. The building was here, the machines
+were here, facts to be accepted without question, just like the hills
+and the rain. He had found them here. That was all he knew about them.
+
+"Let's get out of this place," I said to Ellen. There was a dazed,
+glazed expression in her eyes. Her mind had refused to accept the
+evidence of her eyes and she had stopped thinking.
+
+In my mind was pure panic. Never in my life had I wanted to run so
+badly. The only thing that interested me was to get out of this place,
+fast! I was starting to do just that when a voice stopped me.
+
+"Here's that thief again," the voice said. At least that was what I
+thought it said. The words were English but they weren't like the
+English I know. The accent was all wrong and they were run together in
+a sing-songy effect. I turned to see who had spoken.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two men were standing in a door at the far end of the building.
+Apparently they had just entered. Dressed in glittering clothes, stern
+faced, they didn't look like any people I wanted to meet. I grabbed
+Ellen and started to run.
+
+"Alt!" the command came.
+
+I wasn't doing any halting. I was out of my mind from sheer fright. My
+sole interest lay in getting out of that place. I was so confused I
+didn't realize I didn't know how to get out and I did the only thing
+possible, which was to turn and run.
+
+As it worked out, this was exactly the right thing to do. A split
+second after I started to run, the building vanished.
+
+I was back at the high-line tower, not under it but beside it, with the
+night and the stars and the moon around me, and the high-pitched whine
+of leaking current in my ears. I was back where I had started from and
+no building full of automatic machinery was in sight.
+
+"W--what's the matter?" Tommy gibbered beside me. He sensed how scared
+I was and this scared him.
+
+Ellen had quietly fainted. I threw her over my shoulder.
+
+"Run!" I shouted at Tommy.
+
+With him at my heels, I started making tracks away from there.
+
+"Alt!" came a high-pitched command from behind me.
+
+A streak of light drove through the night, passed within a foot of my
+head. It seemed to set the darkness on fire. The two men had taken a
+shot at us.
+
+This was all Tommy needed to convince him that something was really
+after him. He was already scared and when that streak of light went
+past us, he went crazy. Crouching and turning, he stretched the rubbers
+of that slingshot.
+
+"Don't shoot!" I screamed at him.
+
+It was too late. The rubbers blurred as he released the sling.
+
+Looking back I caught a glimpse of the two men. It was the same two
+all right. They were standing beside the tower. Looking completely
+bewildered, they were making no effort to stop us.
+
+Then the pellet hit them.
+
+_Blooie!_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The blast hurled me forward but I managed to keep my feet and keep
+running. Fire spouted skyward, there was a crack of breaking steel.
+
+The tower was falling. The explosion had knocked the legs out from
+under it and it was falling.
+
+Somewhere over my head was a thrumming snap. I knew what it meant. The
+copper high-line cables, strained by the falling tower, were about to
+break. There were sixty-six thousand volts of electricity in those
+twanging cables.
+
+With Ellen in my arms I dived into a ravine. As I hit and rolled the
+night was cataclysmic with bursting flame. Arcs like bright flashes of
+lightning leaped against the sky as the cables parted. The live ends
+hit the ground and writhed like giant snakes spewing fifteen-feet-long
+streams of molten fire. There was juice in those cables, plenty of
+juice, and it was running wild.
+
+Somewhere, somebody screamed. Tommy! He was screaming. As if his scream
+was a signal, the whole earth seemed to gather itself together and
+hunch upward in one violent explosive blast. It knocked me cold. As I
+blacked out, I saw a great spout of flame leaping toward the stars and
+I remember thinking that the whole vault of heaven was on fire. Then
+something seemed to hit me on the head and I quit thinking.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When I regained consciousness I was in a hospital and a nurse was
+bending over me. As soon as I opened my eyes, she went dashing out of
+the room, to return with a doctor. He poked and pried at me and finally
+said that he thought I would live. From the way I felt, this was more
+than I expected.
+
+The doctor had no more than left until there was a violent argument at
+the door. The nurse was telling someone that I couldn't have company
+and somebody else was saying I was going to have company, or else. Then
+Ellen was bending over me. "Ben, are you badly hurt?"
+
+I told her what the doctor had said and the relief that flooded her
+face almost made me feel romantic. She had a big patch of adhesive tape
+on her face and a lot of scratches and bruises but she was able to walk.
+
+"Ben, what happened?" she asked. "Those two men, that building, those
+machines--"
+
+"And those atomic bombs!" I said.
+
+"What? Atomic bombs? I don't understand. What were those men doing,
+Ben?"
+
+"Sabotage," I said firmly.
+
+"But it couldn't have been sabotage," she protested. "If they had
+wanted to blow up the high-line, they could have done it without any
+trouble. And that building and the high-line tower existed in the same
+place. Ben, it couldn't have been attempted sabotage. There must be
+some other explanation. I've thought and I've thought and I don't see
+the answer."
+
+"Just the same, it was sabotage," I said. "That's the way I am going to
+write the story."
+
+"You will be lying, Ben," said a voice from the doorway. I looked up.
+It was the sheriff. He came walking into the room. His arm was still in
+a sling and his face looked grayer than ever.
+
+"How did you get here?" I stuttered.
+
+"I found you and brought you in," he said. "The two of you." He pulled
+up a chair and sat down in a manner that indicated he planned to stay a
+while. "Now tell me the truth, you two," he said. "Tell me just exactly
+what happened, the way it happened."
+
+"You will call us liars," I protested.
+
+"That may be," he admitted. "But I want to hear it just the same."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So we told him. He sat there and listened without a sign of expression
+on his face. For all the emotion he showed, he might have been made out
+of wood.
+
+"What do you make of it, Ben," he said at last, when we had finished.
+
+"Sabotage," I said.
+
+"What do you really think, Ben?" he came back.
+
+"Well," I said slowly. "There was a slight leakage of current down that
+particular tower. I think this leakage and the particular way in which
+it took place accidentally combined to make us the first time travelers
+in human history!"
+
+Ellen gasped at that but the sheriff didn't blink an eye.
+
+"Go on," he said.
+
+"I think that building exists in the future," I said. "I think it will
+exist some day and that it exists now and if we could cross time we
+could see it. Those men spoke a strange kind of English. That points
+to the future. They were making atomic bombs. We don't know how to
+make atomic bombs now but we will know how to do it, in the future. I
+think that building we entered was an arsenal of the future that will
+be built in Ten Mile Valley in some coming century. You asked me what I
+think and I've told you," I defiantly finished. "If you don't like it,
+you can think up your own explanation."
+
+He didn't budge. "Tommy?" he said, his voice a question.
+
+"Tommy accidentally blundered through the arch made by the legs of the
+tower. He found a machine making tiny atomic bombs. He didn't know
+they were bombs. He thought they were fine pebbles to shoot in his
+slingshot. And that's what he used them for. They exploded on contact.
+Maybe they were designed to be dropped from an airplane, hundreds at a
+time. Maybe they were to be used in interplanetary war. I don't know
+why they were being made. All I know is that an idiot found them, and
+thought they would be fine things to shoot in a sling. Incidentally,
+what happened to Tommy?"
+
+I had forgotten all about Tommy Sonofagun.
+
+"We found pieces of him," the sheriff sighed. "He had a pocketful of
+those pebbles when the falling cables hit him. They all exploded at
+once."
+
+Poor Tommy Sonofagun. He would never get his barrel of candy.
+
+Decisively the sheriff got to his feet. He stopped at the door and
+looked back. "You are right, Ben," he said. "It was attempted sabotage."
+
+And that's the way it went down in the official records, that's the way
+I wrote the story for my paper. The public would be willing to believe
+in sabotage. But would they be willing to believe in time travel?
+
+Not this century!
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75427 ***