of the dark
forest upon the little town in the small hours of the morning.

"The next that was heard of them was about a week later, when they
struck in an isolated rural district in Poland, killing and feeding on
the population of several farms. In the next week more villages were
wiped out, in practically every country on the face of the Earth. From
the hinterlands came tales of murder done at midnight, of men and women
horribly mangled, of livestock slaughtered, of buildings crushed as if
by some titanic force.

"At first they worked only at night and then, seeming to become bolder
and more numerous, attacked in broad daylight."

The newspaperman paused.

"Is that what you want?" he asked.

"That's part of it," replied Dr. White, "but that's not all. What do
these Horrors look like?"

"That's more difficult," said Henry. "They have been reported as every
conceivable sort of monstrosity. Some are large and others are small.
Some take the form of animals, others of birds and reptiles, and some
are cast in appalling shapes such as might be snatched out of the horrid
imagery of a thing which resided in a world entirely alien to our own."

* * * * *

Dr. White rose from his chair and strode across the room to confront the
other.

"Young man," he asked, "do you think it possible the Horror might have
come out of a world entirely alien to our own?"

"I don't know," replied Henry. "I know that some of the scientists
believe they came from some other planet, perhaps even from some other
solar system. I know they are like nothing ever known before on Earth.
They are always inky black, something like black tar, you know, sort of
sticky-looking, a disgusting sight. The weapons of mankind can't affect
them. Explosives are useless and so are projectiles. They wade through
poison gas and fiery chemicals and seem to enjoy them. Elaborate
electrical barriers have failed. Heat doesn't make them turn a hair."

"And you think they came from some other planet, perhaps some other
solar system?"

"I don't know what to think," said Henry. "If they came out of space
they must have come in some conveyance, and that would certainly have
been sighted, picked up long before it arrived, by our astronomers. If
they came in small conveyances, there must have been many of them. If
they came in a single conveyance, it would be too large to escape
detection. That is, unless--"

"Unless what?" snapped th