ere was
not even that; and he knew he was nothing more than a strange animal,
bound, and helpless, ready for this weird creature's experiments. The
one in black held a pencil whose tip was a tiny, brilliant light.

* * * * *

Abruptly the room plunged to darkness, where the only visible thing was
this one point of light. Ceaselessly it waved back and forth before his
eyes; he followed it in a pattern of strange design; it approached and
receded. Again and again the motion was repeated, until McGuire felt
himself sinking--sinking--into a passive state of lethargy. His muscles
relaxed; his mind was at rest; there seemed nothing in the entire
universe of being but the single point of light that drew him on and on
... till something whispered from the far reaches of black space....

It came to him, an insistent call. It was asking about the earth--his
own world. _What of Earth's armies and their means of defense?_ Vaguely
he sensed the demand, and without conscious volition he responded. He
pictured the world he had known; how plainly he saw the wide field at
Maricopa, and the sweeping flight of a squadron of planes! _Yes--yes!
How high could they ascend?_ From one of the planes he saw the world
below; the ships were near their ceiling; this was the limit of their
climb. _And did they fight with gas? What of their deadliness?_ And
again he was seated in a plane, and he was firing tiny bullets from a
tiny gun. No. They did not use gas. _But on the ground below--what
fortifications? What means of defense?_

McGuire's mind was no longer his own; he could only respond to that
invisible questioner, that insistent demand from out of the depths where
he was floating. And yet there was something within him that protested,
that clamored at his mind and brain.

Fortifications! They must know about fortifications--anti-aircraft
guns--means for combatting aerial attack. Yes, he knew, and he must
explain--and the thing within him pounded in the back of his brain to
draw him back to himself.

He saw a battery of anti-aircraft guns in operation; the guns were
firing; shells were bursting in little plumes of smoke high in the air.
And that self within him was shouting now, hammering at him; "You are
seeing it," it told him; "it is there before you on the screen. Stop!
Stop!"

* * * * *

And for an instant McGuire had the strange experience of witnessing his
own thought