"Look," said Sherman, "there's Chicago now. But what's that? No, there, along the lake front." Following the direction of his pointing finger they saw something moving vaguely along Lake Shore Boulevard; something that might be a car--or a man! "Let's go down and see," offered Ben. "O. K. chief, but we've got to pick a good landing place for this tub. I don't want to get her marooned in Chicago." * * * * * The explosions were cut off, the wings extended, and Sherman spiralled carefully downward to the spot where they had seen the moving object. With the nicety of a magician, he brought the ship to a gliding stop along the park grass, and followed by the rest, Ben Ruby leaped out. The edge of the drive was a few yards away. As they emerged from the ship no one was visible, but as they walked across the grass, a figure, metallic like themselves, and with a gun in one hand, stepped from behind a tree. "Stand back!" it warned suspiciously. "Who are you and what do you want?" "Conversation with sweet-looking gentleman," said Yoshio politely, with a bow. "Why, we're members of the American air force," said Ben, "cooperating with the federated armies against the Lassans, and we were on an exploring expedition to see if we could find any more Americans." "Oh," said the figure, with evident relief. "All right, then. Come on out, boys." From behind other trees in the little park, a group of metallic figures, all armed, rose into sight. "My name's Ben Ruby," said Ben, extending his hand, "at present General commanding what there is of the American army." "Mine's Salsinger. I suppose you could call me Mayor of Chicago since those birds got Lindstrom. So you're fighting the Lassans, eh? Good. We'd like to take a few pokes at them ourselves, but that light-ray they have is too much for us. All we can do is pot the birds." "Oh," said Ben, "we've got that beat and a lot of other stuff, too. How many of you are there?" "Eight, including Jones, who isn't here now. Where are you from, anyway? St. Louis?" "No, New York. Is anybody alive in St. Louis or the other western cities?" "There was. We had one man here from St. Paul, and Gresham was from St. Louis. The birds got him and carried him off to the joint the Lassans have in the Black Hills, but he got away." "Have they a headquarters in the Black Hills, too? They have one in the Catskills. That's where we've been fighting them." The explanations went on. It appeared that Chicago, St. Louis and other western cities had been overwhelmed as had New York--the same rush of light from the great comet, the same unconsciousness on every side, the same awakening and final gathering together of the few individuals who had been fortunate enough to attract the attentions of the Lassans' birds and so be sent to their cities for transformation into robots.