he base line instrument to make a
similar check with Vale. It was now ten minutes after nine. He aligned
the instrument accurately, flipped the switch, and began to say as
patiently as before, "Calling Vale. Calling Vale. Lockley calling
Vale. Over."

He turned the control for reception. Vale's voice came instantly,
scratchy and hoarse and frantic.

"_Lockley! Listen to me! There's no time to tell me anything. I've got
to tell you. Something came down out of the sky here nearly an hour
ago. It landed in Boulder Lake, and at the last instant there was a
terrific explosion and a monstrous wave swept up the shores of the
lake. The thing that came down vanished under water. I saw it,
Lockley!_"

Lockley blinked. "Wha-a-at?"

"_A thing came down out of the sky!_" panted Vale. "_It landed in the
lake with a terrific explosion. It went under. Then it came up to the
surface minutes later. It floated. It stuck things up and out of
itself, pipes or wires. Then it moved around the lake and came in to
the shore. A thing like a hatch opened and ... creatures got out of
it. Not men!_"

Lockley blinked again. "Look here--"

"_Dammit, listen!_" said Vale shrilly, "_I'm telling you what I've
seen. Things out of the sky. Creatures that aren't men. They landed
and set up something on the shore. I don't know what it is. Do you
understand? The thing is down there in the lake now. Floating. I can
see it!_"

Lockley swallowed. He couldn't believe this immediately. He knew
nothing of radar reports or the seismograph record. He'd seen a barely
balanced rock roll down the mountainside below him, and he'd heard a
growling bass rumble behind the horizon, but things like that didn't
add up to a conclusion like this! His first conviction was that Vale
was out of his head.

"Listen," said Lockley carefully. "There's a short wave set over at
the construction camp. They use it all the time for orders and reports
and so on. You go there and report officially what you've seen. To the
Park Service first, and then try to get a connection through to the
Army."

Vale's voice came through again, at once raging and despairing, "_They
won't believe me. They'll think I'm a crackpot. You get the news to
somebody who'll investigate. I see the thing, Lockley. I can see it
now. At this instant. And Jill's over at the construction camp_--"

Lockley was unreasonably relieved. If Jill was at the camp, at least
she wasn't alone with a man gone out of his