e world possesses of this
menace. I have seen their machines in operation. You have seen more--you
have looked at the monsters themselves. At one of them, anyway."

* * * * *

The man's voice was quiet, methodical. Mr. MacGregor was attacking a
problem. Problems called for concentration; not hysterics. He could have
poured the contents from a beaker without spilling a drop. His poise was
needed: they were soon to make a laboratory experiment.

The door burst open to admit a wild-eyed figure that snatched up their
candles and dashed them to the floor.

"Lights out!" he screamed at them. "There's one of 'em coming back." He
was gone from the room.

The men sprang for the door, then turned to where Riley was clumsily
crawling from his couch. An arm under each of his, and the three men
stumbled from the room.

They looked about them in the night. The fog-banks were high, drifting
in from the ocean. Beneath them the air was clear; from somewhere above
a hidden moon forced a pale light through the clouds. And over the
ocean, close to the water, drifted a familiar shape. Familiar in its
huge sleek roundness, in its funnel-shaped base where a soft roar made
vaporous clouds upon the water. Familiar, too, in the wild dread it
inspired.

The watchers were spellbound. To Thurston there came a fury of impotent
frenzy. It was so near! His hands trembled to tear at that door, to rip
at that foul mass he knew was within.... The great bulb drifted past. It
was nearing the shore. But its action! Its motion!

Gone was the swift certainty of control. The thing settled and sank, to
rise weakly with a fresh blast of gas from its exhaust. It settled
again, and passed waveringly on in the night.

* * * * *

Thurston was throbbingly alive with hope that was certainty. "It's been
hit," he exulted; "it's been hit. Quick! After it, follow it!" He dashed
for a car. There were some that had been salvaged from the less ruined
buildings. He swung it quickly around where the others were waiting.

"Get a gun," he commanded. "Hey, you,"--to an officer who
appeared--"your pistol, man, quick! We're going after it!" He caught the
tossed gun and hurried the others into the car.

"Wait," MacGregor commanded. "Would you hunt elephants with a pop-gun?
Or these things?"

"Yes," the other told him, "or my bare hands! Are you coming, or aren't
you?"

The physicist was unmoved. "The cre