him. We
crouched, revolvers in hand, gazing at the strange scene. The field
had been a cedar grove, but all the vegetation now was gone, leaving
only the thin layer of soil and the outcropping patches of Bermuda's
famous blue-gray rock. The houses, too, had been blasted. One was on
this side of the field, quite near us. Its walls and roof had
partially fallen; its windows and door rectangles yawned black and
empty, with the hurricane shutters and the wooden window casements
gone and the panes shattered into a litter of broken glass.

But the house held our attention only a moment. Across the
two-hundred-foot field we could plainly see the invaders--forty or
fifty men's figures dispersed in a little group. It seemed a sort of
encampment. The green light beams seemed emanating from small hand
projectors resting now on the ground. The sheen from them gave a
dull lurid-green cast to the scene. The men were sitting about in
small groups. And some were moving around, seemingly assembling
larger apparatus. We saw a projector, a cylindrical affair, which
half a dozen of them were dragging.

"Bob! Can you make out--back by the banana grove--captives? Look!"

* * * * *

The encampment was at the further corner of the naked field. A
little banana grove joined it. We could see where the enemy light
had struck, partially melting off some of the trees so that now they
stood leprous. In the grove were other figures of men, and it seemed
that among them were some girls. Was Jane there among those
captives?

"We've got to get closer," I whispered. "Don, that second house--if
we could circle around and get there. From the corner of it, we'd be
hidden."

"We'll try it."

The farther house was also in ruins. It stood near the back edge of
the naked field and was within fifty feet of the banana grove. We
circled back, and within ten minutes more were up against the broken
front veranda of the house.

"No one here," Don whispered.

"No, evidently not."

"Let's try getting around the back and see them from the back
corner."

We were close enough now to hear the voices in the banana grove. The
half-wrecked house against which we crouched was a litter of stones
and broken glass. It was black and silent inside.

"Don, look!"

Sidewise across the broken veranda the group of figures in the field
were partly visible. We saw ghostly wraiths now among them--apparitions
three or four feet above the g