It was a long descent, longer by the and by his to move his arms. More than once Lockley stumbled. Twice he fell. The hands or him and him on the way that was being for him. There were squeaks. Presently he that some of them were at him. A or in a told him that he must be just here.
He came to accept the warnings. It to him that the very much like those button-shaped that children put in their mouths to make of pitch. Gradually, all his returned to normal. Even his under the to report only blindness, and he saw those peculiar, patterns that from darkness.
More squeakings. A long time later he moved over nearly level ground. He was for possibly a mile. He had not to speak all his descent. It would have been useless. If he was to be killed, he would be killed. But trouble had been taken to him alive from a of wall. His had some use for him in mind.
They him still for a long time—perhaps as much as an hour. It that either were hard to come by, or some was being made. Then the of something or someone approaching. Squeaks.
He was another long distance. Then or hands him. Metal clanked. Those who him him. He three or four onto soft sand. There was a of metal above his head.
Then a voice said sardonically, "Welcome to our city! Where'd they catch you?"
Lockley said, "Up on a mountainside, trying to see what they were doing. Will you me loose, please?"
Hands on the that his arms close to his body. They loosened. He the blindfold.
He was in a metal-walled and metal-ceilinged vault, eight wide and the same in height, and twelve long. It had a of sand. Some small amount of light came in through the he'd been through, despite a on it. There were three men already in here. They to from the camp. There was a tall man, and a man with a moustache, and a man. The man had spoken.
"Did you see any of 'em?" he now.
Lockley his head. The three looked at each other and nodded. Lockley saw that they hadn't been long. The was marked but not into footprints, as it would have been had they moved about. Mostly, it appeared, they'd sat on the floor.
"We didn't see 'em either," said the man. "There was a of a over at the this mornin'. We in a car—my car—and came over to see what'd happened. Then something us. All of us. Lights. Noise. A stink. A all over like an electric that us. We came to and tied. They us here. That's our so far. What's to you—and what 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 at all of what had to them. They to be informed, though the was heartening.
"Critters from Mars, eh?" said the man. "I we'd act the same way if we was to to Mars. They got to out some way to talk to who here. I that makes us it—unless we can out something better."
Lockley, by temperament, to in the than had come in the past. The that the of the had men to learn how to with them optimistic. He that he didn't it. It that the from space were of humanity. The choice of Boulder Lake as a landing place, for example, not have been from space. If there was need for water to land in—which probable—then it would have been good to in the ocean. The ship submerge, and it move about in the lake. Vale had said so. Such a ship would almost choose water in the for a landing place. To land in a lake—one of possibly two or three on an entire for their use—indicated that they had in advance. Detailed information. It of a knowledge of at least one language, by which about Crater Lake have been obtained. Whoever or use of the was no to earth!
Yes.... They'd needed a deep-water landing and they that Boulder Lake would do. They very much more. But if they didn't know that Jill waited for him where the toward his car began, then there was no to let them the information.
"I was part of a team making some line measurements," said Lockley, "when this started. I to check my with a man named Vale."
He told exactly, for the second time, what Vale said about the thing from the sky and the who came out of it. Then he told what he'd done. But he all to Jill. His to the he to incredulity. Also, he did not mention meeting the population of the camp. When his was he like a man who'd done a very thing, but he didn't like a man with a girl on his mind.
The man with the asked a question or two. The tall man asked others. Lockley asked many.
The were frustrating. They hadn't their at all. They'd when they were being to this place, and the were language, but no one. They'd been as well as blindfolded. They hadn't been offered food since their capture, water. It as if they'd been and put into this metal to wait for some use of them by their captors.
"Maybe they want to teach us to talk," said the man, "or maybe they're goin' to us up to see what makes us tick. Or maybe," he grimaced, "maybe they want to know if we're good to eat."
The man said, "Why'd they us?"
Lockley had to have a very about this. It came out of the of how it was that a ship designed to be in water should have in a lake. He said, "Vale said at that they weren't human, though they were only in his binoculars. Later, when he saw them close, he didn't say what they look like."
"Must be weird," said the tall man.
"Maybe," said the man with the moustache, attempting humor, "maybe they didn't want us to see them we'd be scared. Or maybe they didn't to us, but just to us up. Maybe they wouldn't mind us them, but it for them to look at us!"
Lockley said abruptly, "This box we're in. It's by humans."
The man said quickly, "We that. It's the of a for the hotel that's goin' to be around here. They'll it in the ground and garbage in it, and it'll rot, and then it'll be fertilizer. These from space are just using it to us. But what are they do with us?"
There were squeakings. The to the opening lifted. Three down. The closed with a clang. The and crouched, terrified, in one corner.
"Is this how they're us?" the man.
"Hell, no!" said the tall man, in disgust. "They're in here like we were. They're animals. So are we. This is a temporary cage. It's got a that we can in. It won't be any trouble to clean out. The and us, we until they're to do they're goin' to do with us."
"Which is what?" the man.
There was no answer. They would either be killed, or they would not. There was nothing to be done. Meanwhile Lockley his three as good men to have on one's side, and ones to have against one. But there was no action which was practical now. A single outside, able to them by means it was accomplished, any idea of in foolish.
"What of are they?" the man. "Maybe we out what they'll do if we know what of thing they are!"
"They've got like ours," said Lockley.
The three men looked at him.
"They by daylight," said Lockley. "Early daylight. They have the time for their landing. They early so they have a good long period of in which to settled night. If they'd been night moving creatures, they'd have in the dark."
The tall man said, "Sounds reasonable. I didn't think of that."
"They saw me at a distance," said Lockley, "and I didn't see them. They've got good eyes. They me up to the top of the and to see what I'd do. When they saw me looking the over after up on Vale, they me and me here. So they've got like ours."
"This guy Vale," said the man. "What to him?"
Lockley said, "Probably what'll to us."
"Which is what?" asked the man.
Lockley did not answer. He of Jill, waiting at the of the not from the camp. She'd surely have him climbing. She might have his climb all the way to where he around to Vale's post. But she wouldn't have his and she might be waiting for him now. It wasn't likely, though, that she'd climb into the that had taken Vale and then himself. She must that that spot was one to be avoided.
She'd try to make her way to his car. She'd him ask on for a to come to that place to her up. It hadn't been promised; in it had been refused. But if she missing, surely someone would a low-level to out if she were waiting for rescue. A light plane land on the if a wasn't to be risked. Somehow Jill must a way to safety. She was in she'd waited for Vale to come to her at the camp. Now....
Time passed. Hot on their prison the metal. It inside. There came squeakings. The of the lifted. Half a dozen wild were into the opening. The closed again. Lockley closely. It was from the outside. There would naturally be a on the of a to keep from at the garbage it was to contain.
The savage. Thirst was a problem. Once and only once they a noise from the world their prison. It was a which, through a metal wall, be nothing but the of a helicopter. It and droned, very louder. Then, abruptly, it cut off. That was all. And that was all that the four in the metal about events of their own experience.
But much was outside. Troop-carrying trucks had the of Boulder Lake National Park, a very hours after the from the had out of it. They had a to tell, and if it detail it did not imagination. The three missing men had their in versions, all of which were and terrifying. The two men who had been by some unknown agency their after their release. Their were to all the news media. It now appeared that of men had the thing from the sky. They had not notes, however, and their from a black pear-shaped which had for minutes the into the lake, to word pictures of a silvery, torpedo-shaped of space with and and an unknown flag from a flagstaff.
Of course, none of those be right. The of the object, as reported from two installations, against a record of the time of the impact in the and allowed no of time for it to in mid-air to be admired.
But there were and first-hand of events to make a second by the Defense Department necessary. It was an over-correction of the one. It was to be more still.
It said that a bolide—a slow-moving, large object—had been by to be to earth. It had been its descent. It had in Boulder Lake. Air taken since its landing that an of the water of the had taken place. It had wise to remove from the neighborhood of the fall, and the whole had been the occasion of a full-scale response by air and other defense forces. Investigation of the possible itself was under way.
The of the was on Vale's report and that of the so as to tell as little as possible and that to prevent alarm. The on to say that there was no for the reports now through the country. This was not—repeat, was not—in any way with the cold of such long standing. It was a very large from space and very in a national park area, and more into a so that there was no to the of the park.
The had no effect, of course. It was too late. It was at just about the time the temperature in the metal prison—which likely to a metal coffin—had to fall. The moving sun had gone a and the was in once more.
Again the of that box was opened. A was inside. The on again. This was, at a guess, about five o'clock in the afternoon. The man said drearily, "If this is to be the way they'll us, they something to eat than a porcupine!"
The box now four men, three rabbits—panting in terror in one corner—half a dozen game and the just-arrived porcupine. All the wild away from the men. At any movement the to about in the dimness, themselves against the metal wall.
"I'd say," Lockley, "that his guess," he at the tall man, "is the most likely one. Rabbits and and would be of the local creatures. We be too. Maybe we are. Maybe we're being until there's time for a scientific of us. Let's they don't to a here to wait with us!"
The tall man said, "Or rattlers! I wonder what time it is. I'll when dark comes. They're not so likely to in the dark."
Lockley said nothing. But if Boulder Lake had been for a landing place on the of information, it wasn't likely that either or would be put in with the men. The men would have been killed immediately, unless there was a practical use to be of them. He to make guesses. He make a great many, but none of them added up right.
Only one promising, and that a of Lockley couldn't be sure of. He did know, though, that he'd been up he was into the opening of this tank-like metal shell. The top of the box was well above ground. It was not in place as it would be. Evidently it was not yet in its permanent position. The light was enough, but he see the other men and the animals and the birds. He make out the plates which the box's and top.
Inconspicuously, he his hand through the of the prison. Four the ended and there was earth. He around. He stems. The box, then, rested on top of the ground, which was perfectly natural for a not yet where it would belong. The sand.... He further.
He waited. The other three quiet. The around the away. The of the tank-like box black.
"Can the time?" he asked, after to have passed.
"It like next Thursday," said the voice of the man, "but it's ten or eleven o'clock. Looks like we're just going to be left here till they around to us."
"I think we'd not wait," said Lockley. "We've been quiet. They think we're well-behaved of this planet's wild life. They won't us to try anything this late. Suppose we out."
"How?" the man.
Lockley said carefully, "This box is on top of the ground. I've through the and the of the metal sidewall. If it's only on dirt, not stone, we ought to be able to out with our hands. I'll start now. You listen."
He to with his hands, away the for a space. He a in what might happen. He that nothing would take place.
It was at least that from space should accept a metal as a prison for animals. It was that they'd put in a floor. How would they know that such a thing meant a cage, on earth?
Of the whole event might have been a test of animal intelligence. Almost any animal would have to out.
Lockley dug. The earth was hard, and its upper part was with roots. Lockley them away. Once he'd under them, the faster. Presently he was under the metal wall. He upward. His hand open air.
"One of you can spell me now," he reported in a low tone. "It looks like we'll away. But we've got to make our plans first. We don't want to be talking the tank, or when the hole's fair-sized. For instance, will we want to keep together when we outside?"
"Nix!" said the man. "We tell about these characters. We scatter. If they catch one they don't catch any more. We couldn't any for bein' together. We scatter. I call that settled. I'm scatterin'!"
He to Lockley in the darkness.
"Where you diggin'? OK. I got it. Move an' give me room."
"Everybody on that?" asked Lockley.
They did. Lockley was relieved. The man busily. There was only the of breathing, and the occasional of thrown-out earth against the metal of the thing that them. The man said briskly, "This all right. We just got to make the bigger."
In a little while the man stopped, panting. The tall man said, "I'll take a at it."
There was a to the air outside. The in the improved. The of fresh-dug and night air was refreshing. The man took his turn at digging. Lockley at it again. Soon he whispered, "I think it's OK. I'll go ahead. No talking outside!"
He hands all around, "Good luck!" and through the opening to the night. Innumerable in the sky. They were on the water of the lake, here very close. Lockley moved silently. In the just him, his had to almost complete darkness. He away from the water. He got himself and his companions. He very, very still.
He them together. They were outside. But they had at escape. He on, relieved. It that the next time he'd see them, would be different. But he they were men.
Guided by the Big Dipper, he moved directly toward the place where Jill should be waiting for him. By the of the Dipper's he that it was almost midnight. Jill would surely have that nearly the had happened. He'd have to her....
It was two o'clock when he the place where Jill had to wait. He himself openly. He called quietly. There was no answer. He called again, and again.
He saw something white. It was a of paper on a branch which had been of to make the paper clearly. Lockley it and saw on it which the not help him to read. He into the woods, a hollow, and low, the light of his cigarette for a look at the message.
"I saw moving around in the camp. They weren't men. I was they might be me. I've gone to wait by the car if I can it."
She'd in English, in full that from space would not be able to read it. Lockley was not so sure, but the message hadn't been removed. If it had been read, there'd have been an waiting for him when he it. So it appeared.
He through the night toward the small car.
It a very long way, though he did stop and drink his from a little over which a had almost been completed. In the night, though, and with hard going, it was not easy to how he'd gone. In fact, he was if he mightn't have passed the when he came upon the place where had been going on. Still, it was a very long way to be over still-remaining tree and the from which others had been pulled.
He the and south, and at long last the highway. His car should be no more than a quarter-mile away. He moved toward it, close to the road's edge. He music. It was faint, but it was the last that would to in the hours in a by mankind. He his on the roadway. The music stopped instantly. He said, "Jill?"
He her gasp.
"I where Vale had been," he said steadily. "There was no blood there. There's no that he's been killed. Then I was myself. I was put with three other men who were killed but who are still alive. We escaped. It is to that Vale is and that he may or somehow be rescued."
What he said was to make her sure that it was he who appeared in the darkness. But it was true, too. It was to for Vale's safety. One can always hope, the against the thing for. But Lockley that the against Vale's through the events now in progress were very great indeed.
Jill out into the starlight.
"I wasn't—sure it was you," she said with difficulty. "I saw the things, you know, at a distance. At I they were men. So when I saw you—dimly—I was afraid."
"I'm sorry I haven't news," said Lockley.
"It's good news! It's very good news," she as he near. "If they've him, he'll make them that he's a man, and that men are and not just animals, and that they should be our friends and we theirs."
The girl's voice was resolute. Lockley that all the time she'd been waiting, she'd been preparing to that the news was final, until she looked on Vale's itself.
"Do you want to tell me what you out?" she asked.
"I'll tell you while I work on the car," said Lockley. "We want to moving away from here daybreak."
He to the little car, in the it had and broken. He to clear it so he it on to the highway. He used a sapling, and as he he told what had happened, the three men in the and the of small wild life into it with them.
"But they didn't kill you," said Jill insistently, "and they didn't kill those three, and there were the two others you say got over the and to the camp. Counting you, that's six men they had at their that we know weren't harmed. So why should they have a seventh man?"
Lockley did not answer at once. None of the six, he thought, had put up a fight. Only Vale had with the of the spaceship. Nobody else had them.
"That's right, about Vale," he said after a moment in which he had been busy. "But this doesn't look good!"
He under the car. He himself its end. There was a small, of flame. It out and he was silent.
Presently he got to his and said evenly, "We're in a fix. One of the is almost at a right to the other. A king pin is broken. The car couldn't be if I managed to it up on the road. We've got to walk. There ought to be soldiers on the way up to the today. If we meet them we'll be all right. But this is luck!"
It that he was on counts. There were no soldiers moving into the park, and it was not luck that his car couldn't be driven. If he'd been able to it on the road and the highway, the car would have been and they very well have been killed. But this was for the to disclose.
They took nothing from the car they not see the present. They started out to the that soldiers would be likely to on the way to the lake. It was not the way to the world the Park. It was longer than a would have been. But Lockley tanks, at least, against which would be useless. So they the main highway. Lockley was unarmed. They had no food. He hadn't since the before.
When day came—gray and still—and presently the upon and tree of the sky, he moved into the and a broken-off branch, out of which by very great he a club. When he came back, Jill was to the little pocket radio. She it off.
"I was for news," she determinedly. "The government that there are in the spaceship, and he—" that would be Vale "—will be trying to make them what of beings we are. So there be almost any time. But there aren't any news on the air. I it's too early."
He agreed, with reservations. They their way along the dew-wetted surface of the highway. As the light stronger, Lockley again and again at Jill's face. She looked very tired. He sadly that she was of Vale. She'd twice about Lockley. Even now, or now, all her were for Vale.
When appeared on the around them, he said detachedly, "You've had no for twenty-four hours and I that you've had anything to eat. Neither have I. If come up this we'll the engines. I think we'd off the and try to rest. And I may be able to something for us to eat."
There are so as to offer no food at all for one who what to look for. There is some of available. One of is not to eat. Shoots of are not asparagus. There are some wild plants leaves, if enough, will some and of there are mushrooms. Even on one can rock-tripe which is if one it to complete it again to make a or broth.
Before he for food, though, Lockley said abruptly, "You said you saw the and they weren't men. What did they look like?"
"They were a long way away," Jill told him. "I didn't see them clearly. They're about the size of men but they just aren't men. Far away as they were, I tell that!"
Lockley considered. He and said, "Rest. I'll be back."
He moved away. He was and he his in motion, looking for something to take to Jill. But his mind to a picture of a who'd be the size of a man but would be not to be a man at a distance; from couldn't be at such great distance. Presently he his and gave all his attention to the search for food.
He a of on a where there was earth for bushes, but not for trees. Bears had been at them, but there were many left.
He his with them and his way to Jill. She had the pocket radio on again, but at the possible volume. He put the berry-filled her. She up a hand. Speckles of through the and the tree were with yellow light. They ate the as they the news.
A new official news was out. And now, twelve hours after the last, bulletin, there was no longer any that the thing in Boulder Lake was a meteorite.
The that it was a natural object, said the news broadcaster, resuming, had been abandoned. But continued. Photographic had been attempting to a picture of the ship as it in the lake. So no satisfactory image had been secured, but pictures of by an in the by the spaceship's were and clear. Troops have been posted in a about the Boulder Lake Park area to prevent from in to see earth's visitors from space. Details of its landing continue to be learned. Workmen from the have been questioned, and the two men who were and then have told their story. So four beings are to have been by the of the spaceship. One is Vale, an eye-witness to the ship's and landing. The three others to the the landing in the lake. They have not been since. This, however, not that they are dead. Quite possibly the invaders—aliens—guests—who have on American are trying to learn how to with the American people who are their hosts.
Lockley Jill's face. As she the to Vale, she 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 that of the two who'd been and released, the three men in the shell, and himself, none had their captors. But Vale had.
The on with a air of confidence, that yesterday a had into the to the landing site in detail since it not be from a high-flying plane.
Lockley the he and the others had through the metal plates of their prison.
The had to communicate. It is to have had engine trouble. However, later on a fast had a the of the planes. Its pilot reported that at fifteen thousand he'd an odor. Then he was blinded, deafened, and his in spasms. He was paralyzed. The for only. It was as if he'd into a which produced those and then had out of it. He'd used and got away, but twice he passed the there were of the and the pain. Scientists that the report of the men who'd been and with the report of the pilot. It was that or had in Boulder Lake a beam—it might as well be called a terror of the it had—of some of which produced the and the agony. Unless the three men missing from the had died of it, however, it was not to be a death ray.
The news on with every of and confidence. It was natural for on a to take against possibly of the newly-found world. But every would be to make and peaceful with the beings from space. Their appeared to be of limited range and so not to beings. Occasional of its had been noted by the now a about the Park, but it only produced discomfort, not paralysis. Nevertheless the in question have been moved back. Meanwhile are being moved to where they can deliver on the ship if it should prove necessary. But the government is to make this with extra-terrestrials a one, with a more than ourselves be of value to us. Therefore will be used only as a last resort. An bomb would and their ship together—and we want the ship. The public is to be calm. If the ship should appear dangerous, it can and will be smashed.
The news ended.
Jill said, speaking of Vale, "He'll make them that men aren't like and rabbits! When they that we are people, will be all right!"
Lockley said reluctantly, "There's one thing to remember, though, Jill. They didn't the or the porcupine. They only men."
She at him.
"One of the men in the with me," said Lockley, "thought they didn't want us to see them they were monsters. That's not likely." He paused. "Maybe they us to keep us from out they aren't."
