as well; he wanted to be master not only of the present but of the
centuries that were and were to be, as well. I never took part in
politics, Zarvas Pol; I had no hand in this revolt. But I could not be
party to such a crime as Hradzka contemplated when it lay within my
power to prevent it."

"The machine will take him out of our space-time continuum, or back to a
time when this planet was a swirling cloud of flaming gas?" Zarvas Pol
asked.

Kradzy Zago shook his head. "No, the unit is not powerful enough for
that. It will only take him about ten thousand years into the past. But
then, when it stops, the machine will destroy itself. It may destroy
Hradzka with it or he may escape. But if he does, he will be left
stranded ten thousand years ago, when he can do us no harm.

"Actually, it did not operate as he imagined and there is an infinitely
small chance that he could have returned to our 'time', in any event.
But I wanted to insure against even so small a chance."

"We can't be sure of that," Zarvas Pol objected. "He may know more about
the machine than you think; enough more to build another like it. So you
must build me a machine and I'll take back a party of volunteers and
hunt him down."

"That would not be necessary, and you would only share his fate." Then,
apparently changing the subject, Kradzy Zago asked: "Tell me, Zarvas
Pol; have you never heard the legends of the Deadly Radiations?"

General Zarvas smiled. "Who has not? Every cadet at the Officers'