Manning was silent, feeling the dream-sense of unreality overcome him again. That question tangled time and space--it and another thing: around the left arm of Schwinzog's oddly cut coat was a broad band, and in a circle on it sprawled a stark black swastika. A hundred years ago--if a hundred years _had_ passed--American armies had been trampling that emblem in mud and blood. But Dr. Pankraz Kahl burst out, "_Wir sind keine Amerikaner! Wir_--" including himself and Wolfgang with a sweep of the arm, "_sind Deutsche!_" Schwinzog regarded him expressionlessly. "And you?" he turned abruptly on Manning and Dugan. "We're Americans," said Manning steadily, in English. Schwinzog's face did not change. But something in the look with which he had received Kahl's statement had jangled an alarm in Manning's brain. And he was still determined to keep his mouth shut and his ears open as much as possible. Immediately he knew he had been right; for Schwinzog turned again to Kahl. "You say you are German. Your citizen's card, then." The Herr Doktor started automatically to fumble at a pocket, then paused and made a wry face. "I--we have no such papers as you want. Naturally, since we--" "Since you are spies?" Schwinzog folded his arms and the fingers of his right hand caressed his swastika brassard. "That is ridiculous!" shouted Kahl. "I am trying to explain to you that we are visitors from your past! We come from a hundred years ago!" For the first time Schwinzog looked interested. "And how do you explain your presence in the year 2051 _nach der Zeitwende_?" The scientist was soothed. "I am Dr. Pankraz Kahl, member of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft, inventor of the world's first _Zeitfahrer_." "A time traveler? A machine of some sort?" "Of course." "Then where is this machine?" "Back there in the forest--the forest! The fire! It may have reached it--" Kahl plucked at Schwinzog's coatsleeve. "You must save my invention--" The other shook him off. "When I see it I will save it." "Come, then! Quick!" * * * * * The fire had rolled farther into the forest; everywhere the evergreens were burning like torches. Sparks rained down from overhead as they approached the time traveler's resting place, and directly ahead the thicket was a sheet of flame. From Kahl came a wounded cry; he broke from the guards and dashed forward. Then he stopped as if he had run into a stone wall. The soldiers closed up, weapons thrusting. "But this is the place!" Kahl was muttering feverishly. "It was right there--" He pointed at the bare, smoldering grass. The ten-foot metal cube of the time traveler had burned to feathery ash and drifted away on the breeze--or it had in some no less unbelievable fashion vanished utterly.