welded.

"I've never seen anything like that before in my life!" Art came out
from beneath the car.

"What do you think could cause it?" Joe asked.

"Gas!" said Art vehemently. "The awful gas they're putting out these
days. They put everything into it except sulphur and molasses, and they
expect an engine to run. Additives, they call 'em! Detergents! Why can't
they sell us plain old gasoline?"

Ken watched from a distance behind the group. He looked at the silent,
motionless cars in uneasy speculation. He recalled again the radio
announcement of that morning. Maybe it _could_ be something they were
adding to the gas or oil, as Art said. It couldn't, however, happen so
suddenly--not all over the country. Not in New York, Montgomery,
Alabama, San Francisco, and Mayfield. Not all at the same time.

Art turned up the shop lights. Outside, as the sun lowered in the sky,
the glow of the comet began turning the landscape a copper-yellow hue.
Its light came through the broad doors of the garage and spread over the
half-dismantled cars.

"All right, let's go," said Art. His voice held a kind of false
cheeriness, as if something far beyond his comprehension had passed
before him and he was at a loss to meet it or even understand it.

"Let's go," he said again. "Loosen all those connecting rods and get the
shafts out. We'll see what happens when we try to pull the pistons."

Chapter 3. _Power Failure_

The news broadcasts the following morning were less hysterical than
previously. Because the news itself was far more serious, the announcers
found it unnecessary to inject artificial notes of urgency.

Ken listened to his bedside radio as he watched the first tint of dawn
above the hills east of the valley. "The flurry of mechanical failures,
which was reported yesterday, has reached alarming proportions," the
announcer said. "During the past 24 hours garages in every section of
the nation have been flooded with calls. From the other side of the
Atlantic reports indicate the existence of a similar situation in Europe
and in the British Isles.

"Automobile breakdowns are not the most serious accidents that are
taking place. Other forms of machinery are also being affected. A crack
train of the Southern Pacific came to a halt last night in the Arizona
desert. All efforts of the crew to repair the stalled engine were
fruitless. A new one had to be brought up in order for the passengers to
continue on their way ear