ptionally calamitous happening was reported. But Bill slept
through it all.

The army bombers had been recalled. Their efforts had worked more harm
than good. The invincible moon weed now had crossed the Hudson River
at Nyack and Piermont. Tarrytown was overrun, and many of the
inhabitants had lost their lives either in the maws of the insatiable
monsters or in the panics and rioting that accompanied the evacuation
of the town.

* * * * *

New Jersey was covered as far south as New Brunswick, and west to
Phillipsburg and Belvidere. At Mauch Chunk the contents of twenty oil
tanks had been diverted to the Delaware River, and the floating oil
film was proving at least a temporary protection to a considerable
portion of the state of Pennsylvania. In New York State the growth
had buried hill and valley, town and village, as far as Monticello,
and, along the Hudson, extended as far north as Kingston. At
Poughkeepsie, on the opposite side of the river, frantic householders
had armed themselves with rifles and shotguns, and were killing off
all refugees who attempted to land from boats at that point. But the
militia was on guard at the bridges, assuring safe crossing to the
thousands who fled the red death over these routes. There was no
keeping the seed of the moon weed from finding its way east.

At some points fire had been used with considerable success as a
barrier, hundreds of acres of forest lands being destroyed in the
endeavor to stem the crimson tide. But, after the ashes were cool,
germination would recur, and the weed would continue on its triumphant
way. Acid sprays and poison-gas of various kinds had been tried
without appreciable effect. The casualty estimates already ran into
the tens of thousands; rumor had it that nearly one hundred thousand
had lost their lives in the city of Newark alone. There was no way in
which the figures could be checked while everything was in a state of
confusion.

Communication lines were broken, roads blocked, gas and electric
supply systems paralyzed and the railroads helpless. Trains could not
be driven through the glutinous, wriggling mass that piled high on the
tracks. Only the radio and the air lines were operative in the
stricken area, and even these were of little value to the unfortunates
who, in many cases, were surrounded and cut off from all hope of
succor.

At four in the morning, with aching heart and reeling brain, Bart
threw him