from place to place, carrying the
projectors to the various positions where they had decided to put them
up. It seemed to be their plan to establish some twenty or thirty
projectors around the vehicle; they were setting them all at points about
a hundred yards away from it. These projectors differed in size and
shape. Some were cubical, others pyramid-shaped, open at the base as
though to send out the light in a spreading ray.

I saw now, when I had a chance to inspect the projectors closer, that
they were black outside and like burnished copper inside, to reflect the
light. I judged that this black covering must have been like the black
suits worn by some of the men, and that it was impervious to the
light-ray. Near the center of each projector was a coil of wire. The
wires from outside ran to it, and across the open face of the projector
a large number of fine lateral wires ran parallel, very close together.

These were about all the details I noticed. I wanted to remember them,
although they conveyed very little to me, because I realized all this I
was seeing might prove of immense help to the authorities when I got back
to Billings.

Night came, and I was still at work. Tao seemed tremendously pleased at
what I was doing, and I noticed with satisfaction that his attitude
toward me seemed gradually changing. My guard still followed me about,
but he did not watch me quite so closely now, I thought.

My help, that afternoon, was considerable. I was by far the strongest man
in the camp; and, more than that, I was able to move about so much faster
than they that I could do things in a few moments that would have taken
them many times as long.

Tao personally directed most of my efforts. He told me where to take the
things, and I took them, smilingly, and always coming back to him for new
orders. I moved so fast, indeed, that my guard had difficulty in keeping
close to me. Several times I experimented and found that I could get away
from him quite a little distance without a protest, either from him or
from Tao.

As it began to grow dark, they lighted up the camp. This was accomplished
by little metallic posts that had been set around at intervals. Each had
a tiny coil of wire suspended at its top, which became incandescent and
threw out a reddish-green light. Around each light was a square black
wire cage some three feet in diameter. I conjectured that these lights
used the same ray as the projectors, only in a dif