ither," said the chunky man. "There was a hell of
a explosion over at the lake this mornin'. We piled in a car--my
car--and came over to see what'd happened. Then something hit us. All
of us. Lights. Noise. A godawful stink. A feeling all over like an
electric shock that paralyzed us. We came to blindfolded and tied.
They brought us here. That's our story so far. What's happened to
you--and what really happened to us?"

"I'm not sure," said Lockley.

He hesitated. Then he told them about Vale, and what he'd reported.
They'd had no explanation at all of what had happened to them. They
seemed relieved to be informed, though the information was hardly
heartening.

"Critters from Mars, eh?" said the moustached man. "I guess we'd act
the same way if we was to get to Mars. They got to figure out some way
to talk to who lives here. I guess that makes us it--unless we can
figure out something better."

Lockley, by temperament, tended to anticipate worse things in the
future than had come in the past. The suggestion that the occupants of
the spaceship had captured men to learn how to communicate with them
seemed highly optimistic. He realized that he didn't believe it. It
seemed extremely unlikely that the invaders from space were entirely
ignorant of humanity. The choice of Boulder Lake as a landing place,
for example, could not have been made from space. If there was need
for deep water to land in--which seemed highly probable--then it would
have been simple good sense to descend in the ocean. The ship could
submerge, and it could move about in the lake. Vale had said so. Such
a ship would almost inevitably choose deep water in the ocean for a
landing place. To land in a crater lake--one of possibly two or three
on an entire continent suitable for their use--indicated that they had
information in advance. Detailed information. It practically shouted
of a knowledge of at least one human language, by which information
about Crater Lake could have been obtained. Whoever or whatever made
use of the lake was no stranger to earth!

Yes.... They'd needed a deep-water landing and they knew that Boulder
Lake would do. They probably knew very much more. But if they didn't
know that Jill waited for him where the trail toward his ditched car
began, then there was no reason to let them overhear the information.

"I was part of a team making some base line measurements," said
Lockley, "when this business started. I began to check my