hey ducked to the floor of the cockpit, pulling me with them.

"Take care!" Brice muttered, "It might blind us."

We sat huddled in that cockpit for what seemed an eternity, though it
couldn't have been more than two minutes. The glare increased. It
threw into sharp, uncanny relief every tiny detail of the cockpit and
of our faces. The light was as powerful as a searchlight, but not so
blinding. It had a rosy, diffused quality that the searchlight lacks.

* * * * *

In that eternity of tense waiting I tried to collect my thoughts. I
told myself that I must keep steady, that I must keep my mind clear. I
struggled to get a grip on myself; the light, the steady flying
without power, the boundless, horrible silence had shaken me. But
there was more to come. I knew it. We all knew it. And it was not
physical strength that would pull us through--it was wits. We must
hold steady. Thank God we all had years of training--war experience,
peace experience, countless life-and-death adventures--behind us. It
would all count now. It would all help us to keep out brains clear and
cool. Wits, I thought again, only our wits would stand between us
and--what?

The ground wheels of the plane struck something solid; rolled;
stopped! The light snapped off. The sudden blackness, falling like a
blanket of thick fur, choked me. In that first dazed, gasping instant
I was conscious of only one thing. The plane was no longer in motion.
But we had not dropped; of that I was sure. We were still, as we had
been, close to two thousand feet above the earth!

Then came the sound of running feet and a confused blur of voices. The
door of the cockpit was thrown open. A man leaned in, his hand on the
jamb.

"Inspector Brice," he said quietly. "Monsieur Foulet. Lieutenant
Ainslee. We are glad to welcome you." His words were courteous, but
something in his tone sent a tingling chill down my spine. It was
cold, as soulless as the clink of metal. It was dull, without life or
inflection. But there was something else--something I could not name.

* * * * *

I was nearest the door and scrambled out first. To my surprise it was
not dark. We were enveloped by a radiance, rosy as the broad ray had
been, but fainter, like the afterglow of a sunset. By this light I
could make out, vaguely, our surroundings. We seemed to be on a
plateau; a great flat space probably an acre in extent, surrounded by