ature you saw--you said that it
writhed in a bright light--you said it seemed almost in agony. There's
an idea there! Yes, I'm going with you, but keep your shirt on, and
think."

He turned again to the officer. "We need lights," he explained, "bright
lights. What is there? Magnesium? Lights of any kind?"

"Wait." The man rushed off into the dark.

He was back in a moment to thrust a pistol into the car. "Flares," he
explained. "Here's a flashlight, if you need it." The car tore at the
ground as Thurston opened it wide. He drove recklessly toward the
highway that followed the shore.

The high fog had thinned to a mist. A full moon was breaking through to
touch with silver the white breakers hissing on the sand. It spread its
full glory on dunes and sea: one more of the countless soft nights where
peace and calm beauty told of an ageless existence that made naught of
the red havoc of men or of monsters. It shone on the ceaseless surf
that had beaten these shores before there were men, that would thunder
there still when men were no more. But to the tense crouching men in the
car it shone only ahead on a distant, glittering speck. A wavering
reflection marked the uncertain flight of the stricken enemy.

* * * * *

Thurston drove like a maniac; the road carried them straight toward
their quarry. What could he do when he overtook it? He neither knew nor
cared. There was only the blind fury forcing him on within reach of the
thing. He cursed as the lights of the car showed a bend in the road. It
was leaving the shore.

He slackened their speed to drive cautiously into the sand. It dragged
at the car, but he fought through to the beach, where he hoped for firm
footing. The tide was out. They tore madly along the smooth sand,
breakers clutching at the flying wheels.

The strange aircraft was nearer; it was plainly over the shore, they
saw. Thurston groaned as it shot high in the air in an effort to clear
the cliffs ahead. But the heights were no longer a refuge. Again it
settled. It struck on the cliff to rebound in a last futile leap. The
great pear shape tilted, then shot end over end to crash hard on the
firm sand. The lights of the car struck the wreck, and they saw the
shell roll over once. A ragged break was opening--the spherical top fell
slowly to one side. It was still rocking as they brought the car to a
stop. Filling the lower shell, they saw dimly, was a mucouslike mass
that