e strange growth hadn't left the way clear from the
garage to the road. Silby, I had the devil of a time getting the wife
and kids out of the house. When I looked back after going a quarter of
a mile the house had disappeared under a tangled mass."

There was no time for anyone to question John Redpath further. Even as
he finished speaking a large automobile dashed up and out tumbled a
well-dressed and portly red-faced stranger.

"What the devil's the matter with the road above here? Funniest thing I
ever saw. The road to Mount Lemmon's blocked. My family," he said
inconsequentially, "is at Mount Lemmon for the summer and I want to get
through to them."

Blocked! The crowd stared at him wonderingly. John Redpath threw in his
clutch. "So long," he said. "I've a brother in Tucson, and I'm going to
his place until this blows over."

As he left Oracle, John Redpath noticed several dark globes drifting
down on it from the hills.

The first inkling the outside world had of the terrible tragedy that
was happening at Oracle came over the phone to Tucson while John
Redpath was still en route to that city.

"Hello, hello! Is this the police station? Silby speaking. Silby, town
constable at Oracle. For God's sake, send us help! We're being
attacked. Yes, attacked from the air. By strange aircraft, round
globes, discharging--oh, I don't know what it is; only it grows when it
hits the earth. Yes, grows. Oracle is hemmed in. And there are the
birds--b-i-r-d-s, birds----"

There was a stifled cry, the voice suddenly ceased, and the wire went
dead.

"My God!" said the chief of police of Tucson, "somebody's raving." He
lost no time in communicating with the sheriff's office and sending out
his men. They soon returned, white-faced and shaken.

"Chief," said the officer in charge of the party, "you know where the
road to Oracle switches off the main highway? Well, it's impassable,
covered with stuff a hundred feet high."

The chief stared. "Are you crazy?"

"No. Listen. It's the queerest growth you ever saw. Not like vegetation
at all. More like twisted metal...."

But now the city began to seethe with excitement. Farmers and their
families flocked in from the Seep Springs district, and from Jayhnes,
telling weird tales of drifting globes and encroaching jungle. The
Southern Pacific announced that traffic northward was disrupted. Extras
appeared on the streets with shrieking headlines. Everything was in
confusion.

A