ion-wave of that egg, if it hit
an old ship like this in mid-air, would have stripped the fabric from
its wings.

"Set me down," said Sergeant Walpole. "They're watchin' us from aloft. I
sent a man on a monocycle to report." But he told luridly of the thing
that had come ashore, and of its destructiveness. "Now set me down.
Gimme a gas-mask an' clear out. You ain't got a burglar's chance of
gettin' back."

The pilot set him down, and began ticking away on a code sender even as
he landed. Then he climbed swiftly away from the Sergeant, headed in a
weaving, crazy line to westward. Then things screamed downward and the
Sergeant clapped hands over his ears once more. The ground quivered
underfoot, though the eggs landed a good three-quarters of a mile away.
The training-plane dropped like a plummet. The sharpness of a
hexynitrate explosion carries its effect to quite incredible distances.
The fabric of its wings split to ribbons. The ship landed somewhere and
smoke rose from it.

"He shouldn't ha' gone up so high," said Sergeant Walpole.

He struck across country for the treads of the Wabbly once more. He saw
a school-house. The Wabbly had passed within a hundred yards of it. The
school-house seemed deserted. Then the Sergeant saw the hole in its
roof. Then he caught the infinitely faint taint of gas.

"Mighty anxious," said Sergeant Walpole woodenly, "not to let news get
ahead of 'em. Yeah.... If it busts on places without warnin', it'll have
that much easier work. I hope I'm in on the party when we get this damn
thing."

There was no use in approaching the school-house, though he had a
gas-mask now. Sergeant Walpole went on.

PART III

"... The Wabbly made no attempt to do purely military
damage. The Enemy command realized that the destruction
of civilian morale was even more important than the
destruction of munitions factories. In this, the Enemy
displayed the same acumen that makes the war a fruitful
subject of study to the strategic student." (_Strategic
Lessons of the War of 1941-43._--U. S. War College.
Pp. 81-82.)

At nightfall the monster swerved suddenly and moved with greater speed.
It showed no lights. It did not even make very much noise. Then the
second flight of home-defense planes made their attack. Sergeant Walpole
heard them droning overhead. He lit a fire instantly. A little
helicopter dropped from the blackness above him and he began to heap
dirt des