he luminous monster are being
made and further reports concerning it will be broadcast--"

Dirk Vanderpool rose to his feet, walked to the coping of the terrace
and peered into the magnascope that was set into the wall.

He saw that the street, far below him, was jammed with struggling people
and the device through which he was looking brought their faces before
him in strong relief. Dirk was deeply interested and, at the same time,
gravely concerned as he studied the upturned countenances in the mob.

Fear, despair, reckless abandon, mirth, doubt, religious ecstasy and all
the other nuances in the gamut of human emotions and passions were
reflected in those distorted visages which were gazing skyward.

* * * * *

The silvery humming of a bell diverted his attention from the scene of
congestion below him and, turning away, he walked across the terrace and
into the great living room of his luxurious abode.

Stepping to the televisor, he turned a tiny switch, and the face of a
girl appeared in the glass panel that was framed above the sound-box. He
smiled as he lifted the receiver and placed it to his ear.

"What is the matter, Inga?" he asked. "You look as if you were
expecting--well, almost anything disastrous."

"Oh, Dirk, what is that thing?" the girl asked. "I really am frightened!"

He could see by the expression in her blue eyes that she, too, was
becoming a victim of the hysteria that was taking possession of many
people.

"I wouldn't be alarmed, Inga," he replied reassuringly. "I don't know
what it is, and no one else seems to be able to explain it."

"But it is frightful and uncanny, Dirk," the girl insisted, "and I am
sure that something terrible is going to happen. I wish," she pleaded,
"that you would come over and stay with me for a little while. I am all
alone and--"

"All right, Inga," he told her. "I will be with you in a few minutes."

He hung up the receiver of the televisor and clicked off the switch. The
image of the golden-haired girl to whom he had been speaking slowly
faded from the glass.

* * * * *

Attiring himself for a short sixty-mile hop down Long Island, Dirk
passed out to the landing stage and, stepping into the cabin of his
plane, he threw in the helicopter lever. The machine rose straight into
the air for a couple of hundred feet and then Dirk headed it westward to
where the nearest ascension beam sent its red