come from. I've--uh--been unable to
ascertain which is which, if any."

Mr. Untz frowned suddenly. "Look--just how dangerous are these
things?"

"Don't know _exactly_," said Dr. Mildume. "A pigeon got too near the
cages the other day. They seemed to enjoy it. Although, as I say,
their staple appears to be silicon forms. I carelessly set a Weston
analyzer too near them the other day and they had it for lunch."

"If they're too dangerous ..." began Mr. Untz.

"What if they are?" said Mildume. "You make pictures with wild lions
and tigers and alligators, don't you? Seems to me you can find a way.
I don't recommend letting them out of the cage however."

Mr. Untz nodded and said, "Well, maybe we can get Etienne Flaubert to
do something with them. He's the animal trainer we call on. Anyway
Untz always figures something out. Only that's why I like musicals
better. There isn't so much to figure out and you can play Victor
Herbert backwards and get new tunes out of him. So anyway, we'll get a
truck and get these monsters to the studio right away."

It was arranged. It was arranged with utmost secrecy too. There were
other studios, after all, and in spite of their wealth of creative
talent it was easier to steal an idea than cook up a new one. Atom
bomb secrecy descended upon the Crusader Pictures lot and most
especially upon Sound Stage Six, where the dream sequence for the
psychological thriller, "Jolt!" was being filmed.

Even Jimsy LaRoche, the star of the picture, was excluded from the big
barn-like stage. Mr. Untz prepared to get his first stock shots of the
beasts.

There were gasps and much popping of eyebrows when Dr. Mildume--who
had come along as technical adviser--removed the tarpaulins from the
cages. The cameramen, the grips, the electricians, the sound men--all
stared unbelievingly. The script girl grabbed Mr. Untz's hand and dug
her fingernails into it. The makeup stylist clutched the lapels of his
mauve jacket and fainted.

"Nothing to be afraid of," Mr. Untz said to everybody. He was sort of
convincing himself too. "Dr. Mildume here knows all about the
monsters. He's got everything under control. So tell everybody about
them, Doctor."

Mildume nodded, bobbing his short white beard. He thrust his hands
into his tweed jacket, looked all around for a moment, then said, "I
don't know exactly where the monsters are from. I had my Q-beam
pointed into space, and I was focussing it, intending to put it on