neral
himself. There were clickings and a long wait. Lockley shook his head
impatiently. When a new voice spoke, he said, "I'm at Serena. I was
brought here by a Wild Life Control trailer-truck which picked us up
just outside the Park. I mention that because the driver says he's
driving it for the Army, now. The information I have to pass on is...."

Curtly and succinctly, he began to give exact information about the
terror beam. Its detection so that one need not enter it. The total
lack of effectiveness of a Faraday cage to check it. Its use to block
highways and its one use against a low-flying plane. The failure to
search him out with that terror beam was to be noted. There was other
evidence that the monsters were not monsters at all--

The new voice interrupted sharply. It asked him to wait. His
information would be recorded. Lockley waited, biting his lips. The
voice returned after an unconscionably long wait. It told him to go
ahead.

The driver of the truck was taking a long time to make contact with
the military. He'd have done better by telephone instead of short
wave.

The new voice repeated sharply for Lockley to go on with his story.
And very, very carefully Lockley explained the contradictions in the
behavior of the invaders. The blindfolds. The fact that it had been
absurdly easy for four human prisoners in a compost pit shell to
escape--almost as if it were intended for them to get away and report
that their captors regarded men as on a par with game birds and
rabbits and porcupines. True aliens would not have bothered to give
such an impression. But men cooperating with aliens would contrive
every possible trick to insist that only aliens operated at Boulder
Lake.

"I'm saying," said Lockley carefully, "that they do not act like
aliens making a first landing on earth. Apparently their ship is
designed to land in deep water. On a first landing, they should have
chosen the sea. But they knew Boulder Lake was deep enough to cushion
their descent. How did they know it? They didn't kill us local animals
for study, but they dropped in other local animals to convince us that
they wouldn't mind. Why try to fill us with horror--and then let us
escape?"

The voice at the other end said sharply, "_What do you infer from all
this?_"

"They've been briefed," said Lockley. "They know too much about this
planet and us humans. Somebody has told them about human psychology
and suggested that they conquer us