The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Invaders, by William Fitzgerald Jenkins

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Invaders

Author: William Fitzgerald Jenkins

Release Date: February 21, 2010 [EBook #31343]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INVADERS ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration]

THE INVADERS

By MURRAY LEINSTER

_It started in Greece on the day after tomorrow. Before the last act
raced to a close, Coburn was buried to his ears in assorted
adventures, including a revolution and an invasion from outer
space!_

_We're not given to throwing around the word "epic" lightly, but
here _is_ one! Swashbuckling action, a great many vivid characters,
and a weird mystery--all spun for you by one of the master
story-tellers of our time._

On a certain day--it may be in the history books eventually--Coburn was
in the village of Ardea, north of Salonika in the most rugged part of
Greece. He was making a survey for purposes which later on turned out
not to matter much. The village of Ardea was small, it was very early in
the morning, and he was trying to get his car started when he heard the
yell.

It was a shrill yell, and it traveled fast. Coburn jerked his head
upright from the hood of the car. A whiskered villager with flapping
trousers came pounding up the single street. His eyes were
panic-stricken and his mouth was wide. He emitted the yell in a long,
sustained note. Other villagers popped into view like ants from a
disturbed ant-hill. Some instantly ran back into their houses. Others
began to run toward the outskirts of the village, toward the south.

Coburn, watching blankly, found himself astonished at the number of
people the village contained. He hadn't dreamed it was so populous. All
were in instant frenzied flight toward the mountains. An old woman he'd
seen barely hobbling, now ran like a deer. Children toddled desperately.
Adults snatched them up and ran. Larger children fled on twinkling legs.
The inhabitants of Ardea vanished toward the hills in a straggling