ain him and
spirited away his machines and established them in a secret place!

"God help us," cried Milton Baxter, "there can be but one conclusion to
draw. They are waging war against us with their own hideous methods of
warfare; they have set out to conquer earth!"

Such was the amazing story Milton Baxter told the Senate, but that body
placed little credence in it. In times of stress and disaster cranks
and men of vivid imaginations and little mental stability inevitably
spring up. But the Washington correspondents wired the story to their
papers and the Associated Press broadcast it to the four winds.

Talbot had just returned to Phoenix from New Mexico. He had been out of
touch with civilization and newspapers and it was with a feeling of
stunned amazement that he learned of the evacuation of Tucson and
Winkleman and the wiping out of Oracle. Reading Milton Baxter's
incredible story he leapt to his feet with an oath. Toc-toc! Why, that
was the sound the strange birds had uttered in the hills back of
Oracle. And there was the noise of machinery coming from the old shaft.

Full of excitement he lost no time in seeking an interview with the
military commander whose headquarters were located in Phoenix and
related to him what Manuel and himself had witnessed and heard that day
at the abandoned mine. Manuel corroborated his tale. The commander was
more than troubled and doubtful.

"God knows we cannot afford to pass up an opportunity of wiping out the
enemy. If you will indicate on a map where the old shaft is we will
bomb it from the air."

But Talbot shook his head.

"Your planes would have a tough job hitting a spot as small as that
from the air. Besides, a direct hit might only close up the shaft and
not destroy the workings underground. If the enemy be the creatures
Milton Baxter says they are, what is to prevent them from digging their
way out and resuming the attack?"

"Then we will land troops in there somehow and overwhelm them with----"

Talbot interrupted. "Pardon me, General, but the enemy would have no
difficulty in spotting such a maneuver. What chance would your soldiers
have against a shower of jungle seed? You would only be sending them to
destruction. No, the only way is for someone familiar with those old
underground diggings to enter them, locate the birds and the machines
and blow them up."

"But who----"

"Myself. Listen. This is the plan. About five years ago my company
mined fo