back was a sort of tank with a
pipe leading to his mouth. He looked, indeed, something like a man in a
diving suit, and still more like the pictures I had seen of soldiers in
the World War with gas masks on. He pulled off his helmet as he came up
to us, and I saw he was similar in appearance to the red-haired
Mercutians who had captured me.

After a short conversation with Tao he went back to his station by the
rock, and we proceeded onward down the gully to the river bank. I saw a
number of Mercutians dressed this way during the afternoon. They seemed
to be guarding the approaches to the camp, and I decided later this
costume was for protection against the effects of the light-ray.

The Shoshone River was at this point about two hundred feet wide, and at
this season of the year a swift-moving, icy stream some two or three feet
deep. There were small trees at intervals along its banks. All about me
now I could see where they had been burned by the action of the light.

The vehicle in which the invaders had arrived lay on the near side of the
river, some five hundred feet below where we came out of the gully. It
was similar in appearance to the one Alan had found in Florida, only many
times larger. It lay there now, with its pyramid-shaped top pointing up
into the air, close beside the river, and gleaming a dazzling white under
the rays of the afternoon sun.

There were perhaps a hundred Mercutians in sight altogether. Most of them
were down by the vehicle; all of them were on this side of the river. In
fact, as I soon realized, it would have been difficult, if not
impossible, for them to have crossed. The desert on the opposite side of
the Shoshone was level and unbroken. It was swept clear of everything,
apparently, by the light-ray.

We turned down the river bank, and soon were close to the shining vehicle
that had brought these strange invaders from space. What would I see in
this camp of the first beings to reach earth from another planet? What
fate awaited me there? These questions hammered at my brain as we
approached the point where so much death and destruction had been dealt
out to the surrounding country.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ESCAPE.

The Mercutians all regarded me curiously as we came among them. By the
respect they accorded Tao, and his attitude toward them, I decided he was
the leader of the entire party. I stopped, wondering what would happen
next. The man guarding me was still close at ha