* * *

Eyer started to grin his disbelief, but a look at his partner's tense
face stopped him.

"What could want all those steers, Lucian?" said Eyer softly. "I can't
think of anything or anybody disposing of such a bunch on such short
notice, except a marching army, a marching column of soldier ants, or
all the world's buzzards gathered together at one place. In any case
the animals themselves would have created a fuss, would have kicked up
so much noise that somebody would have heard. But this story of the
steers seems to suggest, or say right out loud--though I know you can't
believe everything in the newspapers--that the steers vanished in utter
silence."

"Doesn't it also seem funny to you," went on Jeter, "that the vanishing
of the herd wasn't discovered until next morning? I've read enough
Western stuff to know that a herd always makes noise. Yes, even at
night. The cowhands wouldn't have lost a wink of sleep over that. But,
listen, Tema, suppose you lived in New York City near some busy
intersection which was always noisy, even after midnight--and all the
noise suddenly stopped. Would you sleep right on through it?"

"No, I'd wake up--unless I were drunk or doped."

"Yet nobody seems to have wakened at that ranch when--and it must have
happened--the herd stopped making any noise whatever. The utter silence
_should_ have wakened seasoned cowhands. It didn't. Why? What happened
to them that they slept so soundly they heard nothing?"

Eyer did not answer. It wasn't the first time he had been called upon to
hear Jeter think out loud.

"It all ties up somehow," repeated Jeter, "and I intend to find out
how."

But he didn't find out. Strange stories kept appearing. The three
Chinese scientists still had not communicated with the outside world.
The chap out in Arizona had now so elaborated on his yarn that nobody
believed him and the public lost interest--all save Jeter, who was on
the trail of a queer idea.

Nothing happened however until near the end of the third week after
Kress' disappearance.

Then, out of a clear sky almost, Kress came back.

He came down by parachute, without the ball in which he should have
sealed himself. His return caused plenty of comment. There was good
reason. He had been gone the impossibly long period of three weeks.

He was dead--but _had_ been for less than seventy-two hours!

His body was frozen solid.

It landed on the roof of the Jeter-Eyer laborator