ught them
along and overtook Lockley.

He waited very calmly since it did not seem likely that they would
realize that one man had caused the crashes. The driver of the truck
with the picked-up men did not even think of such a thing. Lockley
seemed much more likely the victim of still another wreck.

The overtaking truck slowed down. There would be no strangers in
Boulder Lake Park. There would only be the task force aiding the
monsters, as Lockley reasoned it out. So the truck slowed, preparatory
to taking Lockley aboard.

At a hundred and twenty-five yards from Lockley, weapons in the truck
cab blew themselves violently apart. The engine, stopped in gear,
acted as a violently applied brake. The truck swerved off the highway.
It turned over and was still.

Lockley turned and walked on. He considered coldly that it was
perfectly safe for him to go on. There were no weapons left behind
him. The men themselves were shaken up. They would attempt to make no
trouble beyond a report of their situation and a plea for help. The
report could be made by the radio, which was not smashed.

Half an hour later, Lockley felt the tingling which meant that his
instrument was protecting him from a terror beam. The tingling lasted
only a short time, but fifteen minutes later it came back. Then it
returned at odd intervals. Five minutes--eight--ten--three--six--one.
Each time the terror beam should have paralyzed him and caused intense
suffering. A man with no protective device would have had his nerves
shattered by torment coming so violently at unpredictable intervals.

Lockley tried to reason out why this nerve-wracking application of the
terror beam hadn't been used before. To an unprotected man it would be
worse than continuous pain. No living man could remain able to resist
any demand if exposed to such torture.

The beam was evidently swung at random intervals, and the phenomenon
lasted for an hour and a half. Anyone but Lockley behind a cloud of
ions would have been reduced to shivering hysteria. Then, suddenly,
the beamings stopped. But Lockley left his device in operation.

Half an hour later still--close to five o'clock--it appeared that the
invaders assumed that any enemy should have been softened up for
capture. They sent an expedition to find out what had happened to
their trucks and cars.

Lockley saw four cars and a light truck in close formation moving
toward him from the Lake. They were close, as if for mutual