rary
illusion of escape. As he always did, Elvin resolved to find a better
job next year. He had been teaching for five years now. He knew all the
tricks of classroom control and smooth community relations. Surely if he
started looking early enough, he ought to be able to get something at a
small college....

Suddenly he was jerked back to reality by a curious spot of red that
appeared in the sky. It moved closer and he saw that it was a falling
object followed by a long plume of red flame. It flashed momentarily
overhead and Elvin heard a dull thud as it fell into a field beyond the
ranch house.

He sprang up from the couch and moved off in the darkness. It had been a
meteorite, of course; if it had survived the friction of the atmosphere
it would make an interesting exhibit for the science classroom. Miss
Gerken would be glassy-eyed with pleasure.

There was no moon. As soon as he crossed the driveway, Elvin stumbled
over the damp furrows of a newly ploughed field. He was sweating when he
reached the row of palms that lined the irrigation ditch. He paused to
wipe his face.

And he heard a weird, shrill, rhythmic sound. It might have been called
music, but there was no definable melody or beat. It was faint at first,
but as he moved to the right, paralleling the ditch, the sound came
louder.

[Illustration: As he cautiously approached the alien object, it seemed
as if a soft melody were being wafted on the night breeze. The sound
made him nervous and instilled fear....]

Then, beyond the trees, in a glow of blue light emanating from the thing
itself, he saw the rocket. It was not quite five feet long, a slim
projectile of glowing metal nosed deeply into the soft earth. The four
fins were rotating slowly.

* * * * *

Gary Elvin might, quite properly, have been frightened, but he was
totally unacquainted with modern fiction dealing with the probable
potentials of science and the universes beyond the earth. Such material
he classified, along with comic books and television, as the pap of
mediocre minds.

Now, when he first saw the rocket, he came to the somewhat prosaic
conclusion that it had strayed from the government experimental site at
Muroc. He walked closer. The glow of the metal brightened; the slow
rotation of the fins and the weird music became hypnotic. For a moment
Elvin felt a surge of fear. He tried to turn away, but he could not.

Instead, moving against his will