foot here.

"The green flash is a sort of a death ray," he summed up, aloud. "And
they shoot it from that bright needle. No wonder they don't want to be
bothered! Somebody may be fixing to upset civilization!

"But it's queer that the needle points at Mars...."

Of this last fact, which might have been a clue to the most reasonable
solution of the mystery, if a rather astounding one, he was able to
make nothing. In fact, huddled up on his pile of grass in some degree
of comfort, he presently went to sleep, still pondering in vain upon
this last clue.

* * * * *

He was awakened by a soft, insistent purring sound, rather like that
of a small electric motor run without load at very high speed.
Recollection of the night's events came abruptly to him, and he sprang
to his feet in alarm, finding his muscles sore and stiff from his
cramped position.

From one side Dan heard the rumble of thunder, and, glancing up, saw
that the sky above the sea was overcast with a rolling mass of dark,
menacing clouds. There was a strange portentous blackness about these
storm clouds that filled him with a nameless fear.

Suddenly he was struck with the thought that it was not thunder that
had wakened him. The noise he had heard had not the rumbling or
booming quality of thunder. As he stood there he again became
conscious of the low, whirring sound, behind him. He whirled around to
face it. The shock of what he saw left him momentarily dizzy and
trembling--though undoubtedly his surroundings had much to do with its
effect upon him.

The sound came from a glistening metal machine which stood half-hidden
in the brush a dozen yards away _looking at him_!

The thing was made of a lustrous, silvery metal, which Dan afterwards
supposed to be aluminum, or some alloy of that metal. Its gleaming
case was shaped more like a coffin, or an Egyptian mummy-case, than
any other object with which he was familiar, though rather larger than
either.

That is, it was an oblong metal box, tapering toward the ends, with
the greatest width forward of the middle. Twin tubes projected from
the end of it, lenses in them glistening like eyes. Just below them
sprang out steely, glistening tentacles several feet long, writhing
and twitching as if they were alive. The tangle of green brush hid the
thing's legs, so that Dan could not see them.

* * * * *

Suddenly it sprang toward him, rising te