One of three

by George O. Smith

Slowly Virginia shook her head. "Kingston has just transmitted a bit of the atomic flame to New York," she said.

Bronson made the natural error. To him, New York was New York and he considered no other city. What stopped him was the belief that Kingston could not transmit anything across the barrier without the presence of a focal mass.

"How?" he asked Virginia.

"With the space resonator," she said.

"But there is no focal mass."

"In New York?" replied Virginia in surprise. "There must be several thousand."

"But—oh! It was the New York of Earth Two."

"Yes."

Bronson looked out of the window and shook his head. "I find it difficult to believe that this terrain is not my own world," he said. "And yet it is, in a sense."

Then he turned from the window to face Virginia. "Ginger-girl," he said slowly, "I know what is wrong with Earth Three!"