I to the of the and played the light around inside.

It at one side, and a dark mouth showed, into

the earth--the place from which the had swarmed.

Foster was in the opening. I him, tugged

him to the level ground. He was still breathing; that was

something.

I if the pub owner would come back, now that the lights were

gone--or if he'd tell someone what had happened, out a search

party. Somehow, I it. He didn't like the type to ask for

trouble with the of sinners.

Foster and opened his eyes. "Where are ... they?" he muttered.

"Take it easy, Foster," I said. "You're OK now."

"Legion," Foster said. He to up. "The Hunters...."

"OK, call 'em Hunters if you want to. I haven't got a name for

them. I them over with the flashlights. They're gone."

"That means...."

"Let's not worry about what it means. Let's just out of here."

"The Hunters--they out of the ground--from a in the earth."

"That's right. You were into the hole. I that's where

they were hiding."

"The Pit of the Hunters," Foster said.

"If you say so," I said. "Lucky you didn't go it."

"Legion, give me the flashlight."

"I something on that I'm not going to like," I said. I

handed him the light and he it into the mouth. I saw a

polished of black four over the rubble-strewn

bottom of the shaft. A stone, by my movement, away

down the 30 slope.

"Hell, that tunnel's man-made," I said, into it. "And I don't

mean man."

"Legion, we'll have to see what's there," Foster said.

"We come later, with and big policies," I

said.

"But we won't," said Foster. "We've what we were looking for----"

"Sure," I said, "and it us right. Are you sure you good

enough to make like Alice and the White Rabbit?"

"I'm sure. Let's go."

Foster his into the opening, over the and

disappeared. I him. I a feet, for

a last look at the night sky, then my and slid. I bottom

hard to the wind out of me. I got to my hands and on

a level, gravel-strewn floor.

"What is this place?" I the out of the rubble, flashed

it around. We were in a low-ceilinged room ten yards square. I saw

smooth walls, the dark of that me think of

sarcophagi in Egyptian vaults--except that these back

highlights from and levers.

"For a of who in the company of cops," I said,

"we've a for doing the thing. This is some of Top

Secret installation."

"Impossible," Foster replied. "This couldn't be a modern structure, at

the of a rubble-filled shaft----"

"Let's out of here fast," I said. "We've set off an alarm

already."

As if in answer, a low cut across our talk. Pearly light sprang

up on a square panel. I got to my feet, moved over to at it.

Foster came to my side.

"What do you make of it?" he said.

"I'm no expert on stone-age relics," I said. "But if that's not a radar

screen, I'll eat it."

I sat in the single chair the console, and

watched a red across the screen. Foster me.

"We a to that sinner," he said. "Who would have

dreamed he'd lead us here?"

"Ancient sinner?" I said. "This place is as modern as next year's juke

box."

"Look at the on the machines," Foster said. "They're identical

with those in the of the journal."

"All pot-hooks look to me," I said. "It's this screen that's got

me worried. If I've got it out correctly, that is either a

mighty slow airplane--or it's at one of an altitude."

"Modern at great heights," Foster said.

"Not at this height," I said. "Give me a more minutes to study

these scales...."

"There are a number of here," Foster said, "obviously intended

to mechanisms--"

"Don't touch 'em," I said. "Unless you want to start World War III."

"I think the results would be so drastic," Foster replied.

"Surely this has a purpose--unconnected with modern

wars--but very possibly with the of the journal--and

of my own past."

"The less we know about this, the better," I said. "At least, if we

don't with anything, we can always we just in here

to out of the rain----"

"You're the Hunters," said Foster.

"Some new anti-personnel gimmick."

"They came out of this shaft, Legion. It was opened by the pressure of

the Hunters out."

"Why did they that moment--just as we arrived?" I asked.

"I think they were aroused," said Foster. "I think they the

presence of their foe."

I around to look at him.

"I see the way your are running," I said. "You're their

Ancient Foe, now, huh? Just let me this straight: that means

that hundred years ago, you personally had a with the

Hunters--here at Stonehenge. You killed a of them and ran. You

hired some of Viking ship and the Atlantic. Later on, you

lost your memory, and started being a guy named Foster. A ago

you it again. Is that the picture?"

"More or less."

"And now we're a of hundred under Stonehenge--after a brush

with a of stinkbombs--and you're telling me you'll be

nine hundred on your next birthday."

"Remember the entry in the journal, Legion? 'I came to the place of the

Hunters, and it was a place I of old, and there was no hive, but a

Pit by men of the Two Worlds....'"

"Okay," I said. "So you're pushing a thousand."

I at the screen, got out a of paper, and a

rapid calculation. "Here's another big number for you. That object on

the screen is at an altitude--give or take a percent--of thirty

thousand miles."

I the pencil aside, around to at Foster. "What are

we mixed up in, Foster? Not that I want to know. I'm to go

to a clean now, and pay my to society--"

"Calm down, Legion," Foster said. "You're raving."

"OK," I said, to the screen. "You're the boss. Do what you

like. It's just my wanting to run. I've got no place to run

to. At least with you I've always got the wild that maybe you're

not nuts, and that somehow----"

I sat upright, on the screen. "Look at this, Foster," I snapped. A

pattern of across the screen, faded, again....

"Some of IFF," I said. "A signal. I wonder what we're

supposed to do now."

Foster the screen, saying nothing.

"I don't like that thing at us," I said. "It makes me feel

conspicuous." I looked at the big red the screen. "Maybe

if I pushed that...." Without waiting to think it over, I at it.

A yellow light on the panel. On the screen, the pattern

of vanished. The red separated, a smaller moving off at

right to the main mass.

"I'm not sure you should have done that," Foster said.

"There _is_ room for doubt," I said in a voice. "It looks like

I've a bomb from the ship overhead."

* * * * *

The climb up the took three hours, and every of the

way I was to a in my head: This may be it; this may

be it; this may be....

I out of the mouth and on my back, hard.

Foster his way out me.

"We'll have to to the highway," I said, the ten-foot rope

of that had us the climb. "There's a

telephone at the pub; we'll the authorities...." I up.

"Hold it!" I Foster's arm and pointed overhead. "What's that?"

Foster looked up. A point of light, than a

star, as we watched.

"Maybe we won't to after all," I said. "I think

that's our bomb--coming home to roost."

"That's illogical," Foster said. "The would be

arranged to itself in so a manner."

"Let's out of here," I yelled.

"It's us very rapidly," Foster said. "The we could

run in the next minutes would be by with the

killing of a modern bomb. We'll be in the cleft

than on the open."

"We the tunnel," I said.

"And be buried?"

"You're right; I'd on the surface."

We crouched, the directly overhead, larger,

brighter. I see Foster's by its light now.

"That's no bomb," Foster said. "It's not falling; it's down

slowly ... like a----"

"Like a slowly bomb," I said. "And it's right on

top of us. Goodbye, Foster. I can't it's been fun you,

but it's been different. We'll the at any second now. I hope

it's fast."

The was the size of the full moon now, bright.

It the plain like a sun. There was no sound. As it

dropped lower, the and I see a dark shape

above it, by the from the ground.

"The thing is the size of a boat," I said.

"It's going to miss us," Foster said. "It will come to ground several

hundred to the east of us."

We the shape with slowness, now

five hundred above, now three hundred, then just above

the stones.

"It's on top of Stonehenge," I yelled.

We as the settled into place center on the ancient

ring of stones. For a moment they were against the

flood of radiance; then abruptly, the and died.

"Foster," I said. "Do you think it's possible----"

A of yellow light appeared on the of the hull, then it

widened to a square. A itself, to touch

the ground.

"If somebody with that ladder," I said, in an

unnaturally voice, "I'm out of here."

"No one will emerge," Foster said quietly. "I think we'll find, Legion,

that this ship of space is at our disposal."

* * * * *

"I'm not going that thing," I said for the time. "I'm not

sure of much in this world, but I'm sure of that."

"Legion," Foster said, "This is no century vessel.

It on the in the station,

which to be directly under the old monument--which is several

thousand years old----"

"And I'm to the ship has been the earth

for the last thousand years, waiting for someone to push the red

button? You call that logical?"

"Given permanent materials, such as those the notebook is of,

it's not impossible--or difficult."

"We got out of the alive. Let's settle for that."

"We're on the of a that goes through the

centuries," said Foster, "a that I've pursued, if I understand

the journal, through many lifetimes----"

"One thing about your memory: you don't have any ideas to

get in the way of your theories."

Foster grimly. "The has us here. We must follow

it--wherever it leads."

I on the ground, up at the shape across the

field, the square of light. "This ship--or it is," I

said; "it out of and opens its doors. And you want

to walk right into the interior."

"Listen!" Foster cut in.

I a low then, a that rolled ominously, like

distant guns.

"More ships--" I started.

"Jet aircraft," Foster said. "From the in East Anglia probably.

Of course, they'll have our ship in--"

"That's all for me," I yelled, to my feet. "The secret's out--"

"Get down, Legion," Foster shouted. The were a roar

now.

"What for? They--"

Two long lines of fire themselves across the sky, down--

I the the in the same the struck.

The at the earth like a thunderclap, and I

saw the mouth collapse. I twisted, saw the red of the

jet as the past, into a turn.

"They're crazy," I yelled. "Firing on----"

A second across my indignation. I the muck

and waited while nine the earth. Then the died,

reluctantly. The air of high explosives.

"We'd have been now if we'd the tunnel," I spitting

dirt. "It at the rocket. And if the ship was what you

thought, Foster, they've something----"

The died unnoticed. The was settling and through it the

shape of the ship up, that the square of light

was gone. As I watched, the door opened again and the ran out

once more, invitingly.

"They'll try next time with nukes," I said. "That may be too much for

the ship's defenses--and it will sure be too much for us--"

"Listen," Foster cut in. A was in the distance.

"To the ship!" Foster called. He was up and running, and I hesitated

just long to think about trying for the and being caught

in the open--and then I was running, too. Ahead, Foster stumbled

crossing the ground that had been up by the bursts, made

it to the ladder, and up it fast. The of the approaching

bombers grew, a of hatred. I a still-smoking stone

fragment, took the in two jumps, into the yellow-lit

interior. Behind me, the door shut.

I was in a room. There was a

pedestal in the center of the floor, from which a bar

projected. The of a man it. While I stared, Foster

sprang forward, the bar, and pulled. It easily. The

lights and I had a moment of vertigo. Nothing else happened.

"Try it the other way," I yelled. "The will any second--" I

went for it, hand outstretched. Foster in of me. "Look!"

I at the he was pointing to--a of the

one in the chamber. It a white line, with a

red point from it.

"We're clear," Foster said. "We've a successful take-off."

"But we can't be moving--there's no acceleration. There must be

soundproofing--that's why we can't the bombers--"

"No would help if we were at ground zero," Foster said.

"This ship is the product of an science. We've left the

bombers behind."

"Where are we going? Who's this thing?"

"It itself, I would judge," Foster said. "I don't know where

we're going, but we're well on the way."

I looked at him in amazement. "You like this, don't you, Foster? You're

having the time of your life."

"I can't that I'm at this turn of events," Foster said.

"Don't you see? This is a launch, or lifeboat, under automatic

control. And it's taking us to the mother ship."

"Okay, Foster," I said. I looked at the on the behind

him. "But I we have luck than the last passenger."