Project Mastodon | Page 2

him, brought the portfolio to the FBI.
"I found it in a bar down the street," he told the man who took him in tow. "Been going there for years. And I found this portfolio laying in the booth. I saw the man who must have left it there and I tried to find him later, but I couldn't."
"How do you know he left it there?"
"I just figured he did. He left the booth just as I came in and it was sort of dark in there and it took a minute to see this thing laying there. You see, I always take the same booth every day and Joe sees me come in and he brings me the usual and--"
"You saw this man leave the booth you usually sit in?"
"That's right."
"Then you saw the portfolio."
"Yes, sir."
"You tried to find the man, thinking it must have been his."
"That's exactly what I did."
"But by the time you went to look for him, he had disappeared."
"That's the way it was."
"Now tell me--why did you bring it here? Why didn't you turn it in to the management so the man could come back and claim it?"
"Well, sir, it was like this. I had a drink or two and I was wondering all the time what was in that portfolio. So finally I took a peek and--"
"And what you saw decided you to bring it here to us."
"That's right. I saw--"
"Don't tell me what you saw. Give me your name and address and don't say anything about this. You understand that we're grateful to you for thinking of us, but we'd rather you said nothing."
"Mum's the word," the little clerk assured him, full of vast importance.
The FBI phoned Dr. Ambrose Amberly, Smithsonian expert on paleontology.
"We've got something, Doctor, that we'd like you to have a look at. A lot of movie film."
"I'll be most happy to. I'll come down as soon as I get clear. End of the week, perhaps?"
"This is very urgent, Doctor. Damnest thing you ever saw. Big, shaggy elephants and tigers with teeth down to their necks. There's a beaver the size of a bear."
"Fakes," said Amberly, disgusted. "Clever gadgets. Camera angles."
"That's what we thought first, but there are no gadgets, no camera angles. This is the real McCoy."
"I'm on my way," the paleontologist said, hanging up.
Snide item in smug, smartaleck gossip column: Saucers are passé at the Pentagon. There's another mystery that's got the high brass very high.

II
President Wesley Adams and Secretary of State John Cooper sat glumly under a tree in the capital of Mastodonia and waited for the ambassador extraordinary to return.
"I tell you, Wes," said Cooper, who, under various pseudonyms, was also the secretaries of commerce, treasury and war, "this is a crazy thing we did. What if Chuck can't get back? They might throw him in jail or something might happen to the time unit or the helicopter. We should have gone along."
"We had to stay," Adams said. "You know what would happen to this camp and our supplies if we weren't around here to guard them."
"The only thing that's given us any trouble is that old mastodon. If he comes around again, I'm going to take a skillet and bang him in the brisket."
"That isn't the only reason, either," said President Adams, "and you know it. We can't go deserting this nation now that we've created it. We have to keep possession. Just planting a flag and saying it's ours wouldn't be enough. We might be called upon for proof that we've established residence. Something like the old homestead laws, you know."
"We'll establish residence sure enough," growled Secretary Cooper, "if something happens to that time unit or the helicopter."
"You think they'll do it, Johnny?"
"Who do what?"
"The United States. Do you think they'll recognize us?"
"Not if they know who we are."
"That's what I'm afraid of."
"Chuck will talk them into it. He can talk the skin right off a cat."
"Sometimes I think we're going at this wrong. Sure, Chuck's got the long-range view and I suppose it's best. But maybe what we ought to do is grab a good, fast profit and get out of here. We could take in hunting parties at ten thousand a head or maybe we could lease it to a movie company."
"We can do all that and do it legally and with full protection," Cooper told him, "if we can get ourselves recognized as a sovereign nation. If we negotiate a mutual defense pact, no one would dare get hostile because we could squawk to Uncle Sam."
"All you say is true," Adams agreed, "but there are going to be questions. It isn't just a matter of walking into Washington and getting recognition. They'll want to know about us, such as our population. What if Chuck has to tell them it's a total of