mind. The reaction was
normal. Lockley had seen nothing out of the ordinary, so Vale's report
seemed insane.

"_Listen here!_" panted Vale again. "_The thing came down. There was a
terrific explosion. It vanished. Nothing happened for a while. Then it
came up and found a place where it could come to shore. Things came
out of it. I can't describe them. They're motes even in my binoculars.
But they aren't human! A lot of them came out. They began to land
things. Equipment. They set it up. I don't know what it is. Some of
them went exploring. I saw a puff of steam where something moved.
Lockley?_"

"I'm listening," said Lockley. "Go on!"

"_Report this!_" ordered Vale feverishly. "_Get it to Military
Information in Denver, or somewhere! The party of creatures that went
off exploring hasn't come back. I'm watching. I'll report whatever I
see. Get this to the government. This is real. I can't believe it, but
I see it. Report it, quick!_"

His voice stopped. Lockley painfully realigned the instrument again
for Sattell, thirty miles to the southeast.

Sattell surprisingly answered the first call. He said in an astonished
voice, "_Hello! I just got a call from Survey. It seems that the Army
knew there was a Survey team in here, and they called to say that
radars had spotted something coming down from space, right after eight
o'clock. They wanted to know if any of us supposedly sane observers
noticed anything peculiar about that time._"

Lockley's scalp crawled suddenly. Vale's report had disturbed him, but
more for the man's sanity than anything else. But it could be true!
And instantly he remembered that Jill was very near the place where
frighteningly impossible things were happening.

"Vale just told me," said Lockley, his voice unsteady, "that he saw
something come down. His story was so wild I didn't believe it. But
you pass it on and say that Vale's watching it. He's waiting for
instructions. He'll report everything he sees. I'm thirty miles from
him, but he can see the thing that came down. Maybe the creatures in
it can see him. Listen!"

He repeated just what Vale had told him. Somehow, telling it to
someone else, it seemed at once even less real but more horrifying as
a possible danger to Jill. It didn't strike him forcibly that other
people were endangered, too.

When Sattell signed off to forward the report, Lockley found himself
sweating a little. Something had come down out of space. The fact
seemed to