ht's temporary
occupation of a human town, but he believed he knew how the terror
beam worked even if he couldn't figure out a way to generate it. He
could imagine no defense against it. But if Jill had awakened feeling
cheerful, there was no reason to depress her. She'd have reason enough
to be dejected later, beginning with proof of Vale's death and going
on from there.

"We might listen to the news," she suggested. "A premonition or two
might be ruled out right away!"

Silently, he turned on the little radio. Automatically, he set it for
the lowest volume they could hear distinctly.

The main item in the news was a baldly factual but toned-down report
of the thing from the lake which had left the park and examined a
small human town in detail and then had returned to the Park. There
were reports of peculiar hoofprints found where the invaders had been.
They were not the hoofprints of any earthly animal. There was an
optimistic report from the scientists at work on the problem of the
beam. Someone had come up with an idea and some calculations which
seemed to promise that the beam would presently be duplicated. Once it
was duplicated, of course a way to neutralize it could be found.

Lockley grunted. The broadcast was enthusiastic in its comments on the
scientists. It talked gobbledegook which sounded as if it meant
something but was actually nonsense. It barely touched on the fact
that human beings were now ordered out of a much larger space than had
been evacuated before. There was a statement from an important
official that panic buying of food was both unnecessary and unwise.
Lockley grunted again when the newscast ended.

"The idea that anything that can be duplicated can be canceled," he
announced gloomily, "is unfortunately rot. We can duplicate sounds,
but there's no way to make them cancel out! Not accurately!"

Jill had eaten a substantial part of the porcupine while the newscast
was on. It was not a satisfying breakfast, but it cheered her
immensely after two days of near-starvation.

"But," she observed, "maybe that won't apply to this business when you
report what you know. It's not likely that anybody else has stood just
outside a beam and made tests of what it's like and how it's aimed and
so on."

They started off. For journeying in the Park, Lockley had the
advantage that as part of the preparation for making a new map, he'd
familiarized himself with all mapping done to date. He knew very
n