as read by
a world which shuddered in cold fear even as it scanned the glaring
headlines.

* * * * *

"Woods," said the editor of the _Press_ to a reporter, "run over and
talk to Dr. Silas White. He phoned me to send someone. Something about
this Horror business."

Henry Woods rose from his chair without a word and walked from the
office. As he passed the wire machine it was tapping out, with a
maddeningly methodical slowness, the story of the fall of London. Only
half an hour before it had rapped forth the flashes concerning the
attack on Paris and Berlin.

He passed out of the building into a street that was swarming with
terrified humanity. Six months of terror, of numerous mysterious deaths,
of villages blotted out, had set the world on edge. Now with London in
possession of the Horror and Paris and Berlin fighting hopelessly for
their lives, the entire population of the world was half insane with
fright.

Exhorters on street corners enlarged upon the end of the world, asking
that the people prepare for eternity, attributing the Horror to the act
of a Supreme Being enraged with the wickedness of the Earth.

Expecting every moment an attack by the Horror, people left their work
and gathered in the streets. Traffic, in places, had been blocked for
hours and law and order were practically paralyzed. Commerce and
transportation were disrupted as fright-ridden people fled from the
larger cities, seeking doubtful hiding places in rural districts from
the death that stalked the land.

A loudspeaker in front of a music store blared forth the latest news
flashes.

"It has been learned," came the measured tones of the announcer, "that
all communication with Berlin ceased about ten minutes ago. At Paris all
efforts to hold the Horror at bay have been futile. Explosives blow it
apart, but have the same effect upon it as explosion has on gas. It
flies apart and then reforms again, not always in the same shape as it
was before. A new gas, one of the most deadly ever conceived by man, has
failed to have any effect on the things. Electric guns and heat guns
have absolutely no effect upon them.

"A news flash which has just come in from Rome says that a large number
of the Horrors has been sighted north of that city by airmen. It seems
they are attacking the capitals of the world first. Word comes from
Washington that every known form of defense is being amassed at that
city. New York is a