He told me then that these two hundred men, with his dozen sub-leaders, were all the fighting force he at first proposed to use. We were about to attack New York City. His people would wait, here in the Borderland, for our success; then would enter the Earth-state to take possession of it.
"You can help me, Rob, because you know your city better than I do. Look around us now—tell me exactly, where are we?"
I saw then the shadows of ghostly houses. My own world! Grey, spectral houses ... streets ... a church ... trees lining a street of residences in a small quiet town. It lay in a plane tilted at a slight angle, and perhaps thirty feet above us. I looked up to the street overhead. Quiet? It was thronged with people—ghostly shapes crowded up there staring down at us. It seemed to be night up there; I could see the street lights; spots of light in the houses, and the headlights of scurrying automobiles.
The town was in a turmoil. I knew that its people saw us down here as a myriad half-materialized ghosts. They were crowding to watch us. They realized that now at last the ghosts had come in a horde! Perhaps to attack. I saw policemen on the streets; and presently a company of soldiers came along. Spurts of flame showed as evidently they fired tentatively toward the ground. But there was no sound.
Brutar chuckled. "Well, they're really frightened now! And they have cause to be. Where are we, Rob?"
It seemed possibly a suburb of New York City. I did not recognize it at once. Then off to one side I saw a shadowy river, with ghostly cliffs on its further bank. The Hudson!
"I don't know where we are," I said carefully. "Where do you want to go first, Brutar?"
"To New York City—down there where there is river all around, and a great pile of buildings."
Lower New York. But I would not lead him. I protested ignorance.
A shape approached us, a man. He gestured. "I know it is that way, Brutar."