He could see Messerschmidt standing in a knot of men behind the wreckage of a crashed plane. They were looking toward the opposite slope, where gouts of fire were winking up and down the mountainside. Kimmensen could faintly hear a snatch of what Messerschmidt was shouting: "Damn it, Toni, we'll pull back when I--" but he lost the rest. Then he saw Bendix lurch out of the bushes ten feet behind them. "You! Messerschmidt! Turn around!" Messerschmidt whirled away from the rest of the men, instinctively, like a great cat, before he saw who it was. Then he lowered the weapon in his hand, his mouth jerking in disgust. "Oh--it's you. Put that thing down, or point it somewhere else. Maybe you can do some good around here." "Never mind that! I've had enough of you." Messerschmidt moved toward him in quick strides. "Listen, I haven't got time to play games." He cuffed the weapon out of Bendix's hand, rammed him back with an impatient push against his chest, and turned back to his men. "Hey, Toni, can you tell if those Northwesters're moving down here yet?" Kimmensen's cheeks sucked in. He stepped out into the plaza, noticing Bendix out of the corners of his eyes, standing frozen where Messerschmidt had pushed him. * * * * * Kimmensen came up to Messerschmidt and the man turned again. His eyes widened. "Well, Mr. Kimmensen?" "What's going on?" Messerschmidt grunted. He pointed up the mountain. "There they are. I suppose they knew they had to move fast once I repudiated the election. They began airdropping men about a half hour ago. They're thick as flies up there, and they'll be coming down here as soon as they're through mopping up. That ought to be in a few minutes." "Northwesters." "That's right, Mr. Kimmensen. "Well." Messerschmidt smiled thinly. "I suppose you've guessed Susie's at my house?" "Will she be all right?" Messerschmidt nodded. "It's fortified. That's our next holding point when we fall back from here." His face was grave. "Isn't there any chance of stopping them?" Messerschmidt shook his head. "None. They're military specialists, Mr. Kimmensen. We don't have any trained men." "I see." Messerschmidt looked at him without any perceptible triumph in his eyes. "It seems, Mr. Kimmensen, that they have men like us in the Northwest, too. Unfortunately, theirs seem to have moved faster." "What're you going to do?" Messerschmidt looked up the mountain and shrugged. "Nothing. We got some of them in the air, but the rest are down. We may have weapons as good as theirs, but they know how to use them in units. It's quite simple. We'll try to hold and kill as many as we can when they come at us. We'll keep retreating and holding as long as we can, and when we reach the sea, if we get that far, we'll drown." Kimmensen frowned. "Their men are concentrated on that mountain?" "Yes." "And you're just going to stand still and let the League be wiped out?"