It was very likely that at that moment Lockley himself more than any other man alive. He himself for Jill's capture. If there were acting with the invaders, her would be more than at the hands of the alone. After all, there was one nation most likely to with extra-terrestrial to help them in the of earth, and its were not for their to civilians.
And Jill was their captive. He'd been past the place where a terror the road. The might the car was stolen, or that its and paint were counterfeit. It that Jill had gone up to it in that there only be American soldiers in such a car, and when near it out her mistake too late.
These were not that Lockley out in detail at the beginning. He ran after the car like a man, unable to anything but and so terrible a that it should have killed its objects by intensity.
Presently he hoarse, sounds. He that the were the going in and out of his own throat, while Jill was and away from him in a car which ten yards to his one. He then, and he was and calm. He was able to think coolly. The only this and normal was that now he only think about one thing—full and complete and terrible for the and to be against Jill. She would be taken to Boulder Lake. So he would go to Boulder Lake, and somehow, in some manner, he would all beings there and every of their coming.
Which, of course, was natural and unreasonable. But would have been at such a time as this.
He moved along the in a of resolve. In the of the world, time passed without knowledge of his state. The of the world was of its own.
The United States had popular among who all American those they were free, and who to the givers. Now though, the United States had been from space by using of type and effect. If the United States were conquered, there was no other nation likely to free. So a great of anti-Americanism under pressure of an for America to be successful in its self-defense.
Moreover, other which take place anywhere, the United States offered to its stock of with any nation so invaded. American increased. The that the USSR no such also had its effect. The United States scientists of every country to help in the of the terror beam, and itself to any for defense against it with all the world. Again there was an in the public image of the United States abroad.
But Lockley nothing of this. His pocket radio no longer to give him news. It had been into something else, most parts were and graters, over his as he marched. But if he had of in the of his country, he wouldn't have been interested. He his mind only on one and related to it.
He along the highway, by a cold of hatred. He was on for of a car. He was unarmed. At the moment he that all the of was disarmed, in if not in fact. So he had no plans, only an hatred.
But he would have to pass through terror to at those he meant to destroy, he that it was necessary to make sure that he would be able to pass through them, that his for Boulder Lake was in good order. It was still on. He it off to be of its batteries. He on, of only one subject, every possibility for with a patience, one idea after another was impossible, but to think of others.
He the odor, which cut through his of its connotations. He on his device and ahead. He he had entered a terror by the which came through the cloud of his produced. Then they ceased. He that the had been cut off. He a up. A car or had stopped the road-blocking and waited for it to be cut off, as it had been.
Lockley into the the vehicle as it approached, but wanting to save for those where Jill had been taken.
He was when the car appeared. It was a perfectly car with a at its rear. It came along the highway. A hundred yards from him, there were explosions. Smoke came out of the open windows. The engine stopped and the car and into the the highway. A man out, at his leg. A in its had all its shells. The leather had saved him from injury, but his was on fire. Other men, two of them, got out hastily. Things had in the of the car, too. The three men agitatedly.
Then one of them said something which the others to the away from the car. The third man after the faster-moving two.
Lockley, and with attention, when the terror came on again. He it, very of his protection, but distinct. The had taken place when the car was in the area now again by the terror beam. The men in the car, and scorched, had the was to come on and they didn't want to be in it.
Lockley noted that the of the had no protection against the to match his own. Perhaps the themselves were protected only near the projectors. This was an item his plans of for Jill. He it away in his mind. Then he that the in the car had just like the pistol on his own seat cushion. The was not with the terror beam. There'd been no in action when his own pistol up. It did not that if the a that they'd turn it on their own confederates.
No. Rational beings would do nothing so self-contradictory.
Then Lockley looked at the grater-pocket radio device of his own manufacture. He the that his own pistol had the he'd the on. The in the other car when that car was near him.
He very and about the matter. He to turn off his he would need it to Jill. But when he to think of any with revenge, his mind and agitated.
Two miles along the highway, which had not yet to in toward Boulder Lake, there was a farmhouse. Lockley walked to the building. He the door locked. Without thought, he it. He the closets. He a and a box of shells. He them, then left the gun and all the but three. He out. Presently he a on the road. He off twenty-five yards and another. He a third twenty-five yards on, and then off three hundred feet. The car had been just about that away when the came.
He on his device. Two of the three smokily. The away did not explode.
He did not rejoice. He on without elation, but it a part of his search for that he he set off a hundred and twenty-five yards of himself. There was something about the device he'd which detonate, up to a of a little over one hundred yards. He no about it, though it was enough. The of saw-toothed produced of energy until the saw-teeth to out. There were in which, for lengths of time, energy to existed. This had not been out in advance, but the was clear.
He came to the place where the main to Boulder Lake off from the road he was following. He into it, walking doggedly.
Three miles toward the lake, an engine from him. He got off the and the switch. A half-ton came openly along the road. It came closer and closer.
Small-arm exploded. The engine stopped and the light over onto its side. Lockley did not approach it. Its driver might not be dead, and he would not it possible to any man alive who was with Jill's captors. He passed the and on up the highway.
Seven miles up the road a came from Boulder Lake. Lockley himself out of sight. He on his instrument. A gun to pieces with a detonation. The crashed. It was to Lockley that at about the time that off. The was, of course, that air is more or less conductive. In an cloud the and did not fire in the cylinders.
There were two other vehicles which to pass Lockley as he on up the long way to the lake. Both came from the of the Park. He left them the highway. Between times, he walked with a toward the place where Vale had been the to report a thing come from the sky. That had been how many days ago? Three? Four?
Then Lockley had been a and well-conducted citizen to about events, but of the of others. Now he'd changed. He only one emotion, which was such as he'd before. He had only one motive, which was to take total and for what had been done to Jill.
He on and on. He had to make a of not less than twenty miles from the Park's beginning. He on there were terror to pass and did not when his device operated. He not arm himself from the that ditched, all chemical and their at the same time. He was a minute among the mountains, alone upon a highway, moving to destroy—alone—the from space and the men who with them for the of earth. For his purpose he the of equipment, a device of a pocket radio and a grater.
He had food in his pockets, but he not eat. During the he of its weight and it away. But he often. More than once he from small over which the had small bridges.
At three in the a came up from behind. Here he which him almost a midget. The through a mountainsides. There was no place for him to himself. When he the engine, he stopped and it. The had up many men from along its route. There were and and men, by the of their firearms. The them along and Lockley.
He waited very since it did not likely that they would that one man had the crashes. The driver of the with the picked-up men did not think of such a thing. Lockley much more likely the of still another wreck.
The down. There would be no in Boulder Lake Park. There would only be the the monsters, as Lockley it out. So the slowed, to taking Lockley aboard.
At a hundred and twenty-five yards from Lockley, in the themselves apart. The engine, stopped in gear, as a brake. The off the highway. It over and was still.
Lockley and walked on. He that it was perfectly safe for him to go on. There were no left him. The men themselves were up. They would attempt to make no trouble a report of their and a for help. The report be by the radio, which was not smashed.
Half an hour later, Lockley the which meant that his was protecting him from a terror beam. The only a time, but fifteen minutes later it came back. Then it returned at odd intervals. Five minutes—eight—ten—three—six—one. Each time the terror should have him and suffering. A man with no device would have had his nerves by so at intervals.
Lockley to out why this nerve-wracking of the terror hadn't been used before. To an man it would be than pain. No man able to any if to such torture.
The was at intervals, and the for an hour and a half. Anyone but Lockley a cloud of would have been to hysteria. Then, suddenly, the stopped. But Lockley left his device in operation.
Half an hour later still—close to five o'clock—it appeared that the that any enemy should have been up for capture. They sent an to out what had to their trucks and cars.
Lockley saw four and a light in close moving toward him from the Lake. They were close, as if for protection. They moved steadily, as if the that had overtaken others. The reports from trucks to them, but the was to such happenings.
The four in the lead five men each. Each man was with a a single in its and none in its magazine. The pointed up. There was more in the light behind, and it was in for use, but the was of iron. If that detonated, it do no harm. If it did not, it would be available for use against the single man mentioned by the driver of the last to be wrecked.
But Lockley saw them coming. They came a long of road. He a the to a little that away from the road. He posted himself where he was to be seen. Then he waited.
The of appeared. It toward Lockley at something like thirty miles an hour. Perhaps ten yards the lead car from the second. The was a closer to the four man-carrying vehicles. They along, every man alert. They would pass Lockley.
He did nothing. His device was already on. He in calm.
The lead car stopped as if it had into a wall, while it in its top. The second car into it, detonating. The third car. The fourth. The into the others with a and report, each case in the same instant. The iron.
Lockley away along the small ravine. From now on he would avoid the highway. He that he would arrive at Boulder Lake itself about an hour after dark. It to him that then Jill would have been a of the for something more than twelve hours, at least ten of them at their headquarters.
Before he the climb that would take him to the invaders, Lockley stopped at a small stream.
He thirstily.
