ft.

He filled his hat with them and made his way back to Jill. She had the
pocket radio on again, but at the lowest possible volume. He put the
berry-filled hat down beside her. She held up a warning hand. Speckles
of sunshine trickled down through the foliage and the tree trunks were
spotted with yellow light. They ate the berries as they heard the
news.

A new official news release was out. And now, twelve hours after the
last, wholly reassuring bulletin, there was no longer any pretense
that the thing in Boulder Lake was merely a meteorite.

The pretext that it was a natural object, said the news broadcaster,
resuming, had been abandoned. But reassurance continued. Photographic
planes had been attempting to get a picture of the alien ship as it
floated in the lake. So far no satisfactory image had been secured,
but pictures of wreckage caused by an enormous wave generated in the
lake by the alien spaceship's arrival were sharp and clear. Troops
have been posted in a cordon about the Boulder Lake Park area to
prevent unauthorized persons from swarming in to see earth's visitors
from space. Details of its landing continue to be learned. Workmen
from the construction camp have been questioned, and the two men who
were paralyzed and then released have told their story. So far four
human beings are known to have been seized by the occupants of the
spaceship. One is Vale, an eye-witness to the ship's descent and
landing. The three others went to investigate the gigantic explosion
accompanying the landing in the lake. They have not been seen since.
This, however, does not imply that they are dead. Quite possibly the
invaders--aliens--guests--who have landed on American soil are trying
to learn how to communicate with the American people who are their
hosts.

Lockley watched Jill's face. As she heard the references to Vale, she
went white, but she saw Lockley looking at her and said fiercely,
"They don't know that the visitors didn't kill you and let you and the
other three men escape. Someone ought to tell these broadcasters...."

Lockley did not answer. In his own mind, though, there was the fact
that of the two workmen who'd been paralyzed and released, the three
men in the compost pit shell, and himself, none had seen their
captors. But Vale had.

The broadcaster went on with a fine air of confidence, reporting that
yesterday afternoon a helicopter had flown into the mountains to
examine the landing site in deta