animals seven miles away were safe. This was notable news.

Then the unseen object did something. The terror beam that flicked
back and forth doubled in intensity. The soldiers just reentering
Maplewood smelled foulness and saw bright lights. Bellowings deafened
them. They fell with every muscle rigid in spasm. Beyond them other
men were paralyzed. For five minutes the invaders' mobile weapon
paralyzed all living things for a distance of fifteen miles. Then for
thirty seconds it paralyzed living things for a distance of thirty
miles. For a bare instant it convulsed men and animals for a greater
distance yet. And all these victims of the terror beam knew,
thereafter, an invincible horror of the beam.

The thing from the Park which nobody had seen went back into the Park.
And then men were permitted to return to exactly the same places
they'd been allowed to occupy before the thing began its excursion.

It seemed that nothing was changed, but everything was changed. If
there were mobile carriers of the invasion weapon, then victory could
not be had by a single atom bomb fired into Boulder Lake. There might
be a dozen separate mobile terror beam generators scattered through
the Park. Any atomic attack would need to be multiplied in its
violence to be certain of results. Instead of one bomb there might be
a need for fifty. They would have to destroy the Park utterly, even
its mountains. And the fallout from so many atom bombs simply could
not be risked. The invaders were effectively invulnerable.

While this undesirable situation was being demonstrated, Jill slept
heavily between two roots of a very large tree, and Lockley dozed
against a nearby tree trunk. He believed that he guarded Jill most
vigilantly.

He awoke at dawn with the din of bird song in his ears. Jill opened
her eyes at almost the same instant. She smiled at him and tried to
get up. She was stiff and sore from the hardness of the ground on
which she'd slept. But it was a new day, and there was breakfast. It
was porcupine cooked the night before.

"Somehow," said Jill as she nibbled at a bone, "somehow I feel more
cheerful than I did."

"That's a mistake," Lockley told her. "Start out with a few
premonitions and the day improves as they turn out wrong. But if you
start out hoping, the day ends miserably with most of your hopes
denied."

"You've got premonitions?" she asked.

"Definitely," he said.

It was true. As yet he knew nothing of last nig