only one by which
they could fire outside the plane--due to the necessity of keeping the
cabin closed to retain oxygen--was the rapid firer on the wing. This
could be depressed enough to fire downward at an angle of forty-five
degrees. Jeter hesitated for a moment.

He looked at Eyer. Eyer grinned. "It can't bring death to us any
sooner," he said. "Let her go!"

Jeter tripped the rapid firer and held it for half a minute, during
which time three hundred projectiles, eight inches long by two inches in
diameter, were poured into the invisible surface. The bullets simply
accomplished nothing. It was almost as though the field had simply
opened its mouth to catch thrown food. There was no movement of the
field, no jarring, no vibration. Nor did the plane itself tremble or
shake. Jeter had to stop the rapid firer because its base, the plane,
was now so firmly fixed that the recoil might kick the gun out of its
mount.

Now the partners sat and looked out through the windows of unbreakable
glass, watching the work of those tentacular fingers.

"How does it feel, Tema, to be eaten alive?" asked Jeter.

"Have you radiophoned Hadley about what's happening to us?"

"No," replied Jeter. "It would frighten the world half out of its wits.
Besides, what can we say has caught us? We don't know."

"And what are we going to do about it?"

* * * * *

"We're going to wait. I've a theory about some of this. We know blamed
well that, except for the most miraculous luck, you couldn't have set
the plane down on this field without it slipping off again. Well there's
only one answer to that: the rubbery resilience of the surface. It must
have given a little to hold the plane--and us when we walked on it. What
does that mean? Simply that we were seen and the field made usable for
us by some intelligence. That intelligence watches us now. It saved our
lives for some reason or other. It didn't destroy us when we were
afoot out there. It isn't destroying us now. It's swallowing us
whole--and for some reason. Why? That we'll have to discover. But I
think we can rest easy on one thing. We're not to be killed by this
swallowing act, else we'd have been dead before now."

"Have you any idea what this stuff is?"

"Yes, but the idea is so wild and improbable that I'm reluctant to tell
you what I guess until I know more. However, if it develops that we are
to die in this swallowing act, then I'll give you a tip--