irely. In
general, the press, editorially, wrote in a humorous vein, conjuring up
many ridiculous possibilities of what was about to happen. The public
followed this lead. It was amused, interested to a degree; but, as a mass,
neither apprehensive nor serious--only curious.

In some parts of the earth--among the smaller Latin nations
particularly--some apprehension was felt. But even so, no one knew what to
do about it--where to go to avoid the danger--for the attack, if it came
at all, was as likely to strike one country as another.

The first week in March arrived with public interest steadily increasing.
Mercury, always difficult of observation, presented no spectacle for the
public gaze and imagination to feed upon. But, all over the world, there
were probably more eyes turned toward the setting and rising sun during
that week than ever had been turned there before.

Professor Newland issued no more statements after that evening I have
described. He was taken with a severe cold in the latter part of February,
and as Beth was in delicate health and did not stand the Northern winters
well, the whole family left for a few months' stay at their bungalow home
in Florida. They were quite close to the little village of Bay Head, on
the Gulf coast. I kept in communication with them there.

The 8th of March came and passed without a report from any part of the
earth of the falling of the Mercutian meteors. Satirical comment in the
press doubled. There was, indeed, no scientific report of any unusual
astronomical phenomena, except from the Harvard observatory the following
morning. There Professor Newland's assistant, Professor Brighton, stated
he had again observed a new "star"--an interplanetary vehicle, as
Professor Newland described it. Only a single one had been observed this
time. It was seen just before dawn of the 9th.

Then, about 4 P.M., Atlantic time, on the afternoon of the 9th, the world
was electrified by the report of the landing of invaders in the United
States. The news came by wireless from Billings, Montana. An
interplanetary vehicle of huge size had landed on the desert in the
Shoshone River district of northern Wyoming, west of the Big Horn
Mountains.

This strange visitor--it was described as a gleaming, silvery object
perhaps a hundred feet in diameter--had landed near the little Mormon
settlement of Byron. The hope that its mission might be friendly was
dispelled even in the first report from Bil