nce of succeeding.

... And would that be so bad? Were his motives so ignoble, or his
methods so very atrocious?

I drove that line of thought from my mind. I could think about that
later....

* * * * *

From the outside entrance of the tunnel, the dark spaceship seemed
disturbingly close, and the expanse between it and us free of
impediments of any kind. Only fifty or sixty quick steps, and then....
The Martians at the ship saw us and climbed aboard. The ship was
beginning to vibrate again.

The two policemen were wandering around by the water's edge. We could
hear the dogs howling. Several others had joined in now, but we couldn't
see them. They were above us.

"Walk slow to ship," Blekeke instructed, tenseness obvious in his voice.
"Casual. Like nothing. I right behind."

Maxwell and I glanced at each other and stepped from the aperture to the
gravelly beach and started walking very slowly and casually toward the
spaceship.

We had gone about ten feet when we heard, in the short intervals when
the dogs weren't howling, the crunching footsteps of Blekeke behind us.
They were faltering.

I couldn't resist a backward glance.

I saw about a half-dozen dogs on the hill behind and above Blekeke. They
were squatting on their haunches, noses pointed at the spaceship, and
they were creating the damnedest racket I had ever heard. Surely the
cops would at least _suspect_ something!

Blekeke was walking stiffly, slowly, keeping the blaster pointed at us,
making a visible effort not to turn around.

"Hey, you goddam dogs!" one of the policemen on the beach shouted.
"Shut the hell up!" He picked up a rock and threw it, but he was too far
away. The missile whizzed low over my head. I ducked instinctively,
turning to see where the stone hit. It missed the dogs by a good fifteen
or twenty feet.

Other policemen were appearing from the direction of the road, running
anxiously toward the dogs, looking in the direction the dogs were
pointing.

And seeing nothing.

Other dogs were appearing, too, some well within the vision of
Blekeke--but another quick glance showed me that he was staring rigidly
ahead and walking steadily.

We were entering the shadow of the spaceship. Less than twenty feet to
go. Even in the dim light, I could almost distinguish the features of
the Martian waiting there to haul us aboard.

* * * * *

The policemen on the beach were