with
eating wild stuff. It's mostly on the order of spinach."

"I'll carry them," said Jill.

She actually looked at him for the first time. Until she found herself
anxious because he was out of sight for a long time, she hadn't really
regarded him as an individual. He'd been only a person who was helping
her because Vale wasn't available. Now she assured herself that Vale
would be very grateful to him for aiding her. "I'm rested now," she
added.

He nodded and led the way once more. He watched the sun for direction.
Two or three miles from their first halt he said abruptly, "I think
the terror beam should be over yonder." He waved an arm. "I've got an
idea about it. I'll see."

"Be careful!" said Jill uneasily.

He nodded and swung away, moving with a peculiar tentativeness. She
knew that he was testing for the smell which was the first symptom of
approach to the alien weapon.

He halted half a mile from where Jill watched, resting again while she
gazed after him. He moved backward and forward. He marked a place with
a stone. He came well back from it and seemed to remove his wrist
watch. He laid it on a boulder and stamped on it. He stamped again and
again, shifting it between stampings. Then he pounded it with a small
rock. He stood up and came back, trailing something which glittered
golden for an instant.

He halted before he reached the rock he'd placed as a marker. He did
cryptic things, facing away from Jill. From time to time there was a
golden glitter in the air near him.

He came back. As he came, he wound something into a little coil. It
was the silicon bronze mainspring of his non-magnetic watch. He held
it for her to see and put it in his pocket.

"I know what the terror beam is--for what good it'll do!" he said
bitterly. "It's a beam of radiation on the order of radar, and for
that matter X-rays and everything else. Only an aerial does pick it up
and this watchspring makes a good one. I could barely detect the smell
at a certain place, but when I touched the laid out spring, it picked
up more than my body did and it became horrible! Then I moved in to
where my skin began to tingle and I saw lights and heard noises. The
spring made all the difference in the world. I even found the
direction of the beam."

Jill looked frightened.

"It comes from Boulder Lake," he told her. "It's the terror beam, all
right! You can walk into it without knowing it. And I suspect that if
it were strong enough