Come on!"

He stuffed his pockets with food. He led the way.

The morning had now arrived. The sun was visible, red at the eastern
horizon.

"Walk on the grass!" commanded Lockley.

There was no point in leaving footprints, though there was no reason
to believe the explosion on the car seat had been heard. Lockley,
indeed, considered that if the aliens had just used a previously
undisclosed weapon, there would be explosions of greater or lesser
violence all over the evacuated territory and all other areas within
its range. There wouldn't be many farmhouses without a shotgun put
away somewhere. There would be shotgun shells, too. If the aliens had
a detonator beam as well as one that produced the terror beam's
effects, then all hope of resistance was probably gone.

They crossed to the house and moved alongside it. They went with
instinctive furtiveness out of the lane and quickly into the woodland
on the farther side. They were soaked almost immediately. Fallen
leaves clung to their shoes. Drooping branches smeared them with
wetness. Lockley went barely out of sight of the highway and then
trudged doggedly in the direction the Wild Life Control trailer-truck
had taken. He handed Jill the ribbon of bronze that had been the
mainspring of his watch.

"We might pick up the beam from the wetness underfoot," he said, "but
we'll play it safe and use this too."

They went on for a long way. Lockley fumed, "I don't like this! We
ought to be there--"

"I think," said Jill, "I smell it."

"I'll try it," said Lockley.

He detected the jungle smell and its concomitant revolting odors. He
led Jill back.

"Wait here, by this big tree stump. I'll be able to find you and
you're safe enough from the beam."

He turned away. Jill said pleadingly, "Please be careful!"

"A little while ago," he told her gloomily, "I felt that I had too
much useful information to take any chances with my life, let alone
yours. I'm not so sure of my importance now. But I think you still
need somebody else around."

"I do!" said Jill. "And you know it! I'd much rather--"

"I'll be back," he repeated.

He went away, trailing the watch spring.

He was extra cautious now. The smell recurred and grew stronger. He
began to feel the first faint flashes of light in his eyes. It was the
symptom which followed the smell when approaching a terror beam. Then
a faint, discordant murmur, originating in his own ears. He turned on
the device made of t