something
terrible were going to happen!"

Ken sensed the way she felt. It was all he could do to hold back the
same reaction within himself, but he knew it must be far more difficult
for Maria, being in a foreign country among strangers with customs she
didn't understand.

"Why don't you and your mother come over here until they get back?" he
asked.

"Suppose they don't come back at all? Tonight, I mean."

"Then you can sleep here. Mom's got plenty of room."

"I'll ask Mamma. If it's all right with her, we'll be right over."

Ken hoped they would come. He found himself concerned beyond all reason
that Maria and her mother should be made comfortable and relieved of
their worries.

He went out to the backyard again, where all the other members of the
club were still lounging on the grass, watching the sky. The comet was
twenty degrees above the horizon, although the sun had long since set
below the western mountains. No one seemed to feel this was a night for
sleeping.

"Let's try your battery portable for a few minutes," said Joe Walton.
"I'd like to know what's going on in the rest of the world."

Ken brought it out and turned it on. The local station was off the air,
of course, and so was the one in Frederick. Half the power there came
from the Collin's Dam. More than one-third of the usual stations were
missing, but Ken finally picked up one coming in clearly from the
northern tip of the state.

The announcer didn't sound like an announcer. He sounded like an
ordinary man in the midst of a great and personal tragedy.

"Over three-fourths of the cars in the United States," he was saying,
"are now estimated to be out of commission. The truck transportation
system of the country has all but broken down. The railroads have
likewise suffered from this unbelievable phenomenon.

"All machinery which involves rolling or sliding contact between metal
parts has been more or less affected. Those equipped with roller
bearings are holding up longer than those equipped with bushings, but
all are gradually failing.

"In New York City half the power capacity has gone out of commission.
Some emergency units have been thrown into operation, but these cannot
carry the load, and even some of them have failed. Elsewhere, across the
nation, the story is similar. In Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis,
Washington, San Francisco--the power systems are breaking down along
with motor and rail transportation.

"For some hours no