sts
essayed to drive through it as through a sheet of water. They dodged a
swearing motorcycle cop and, yelling hilariously, plunged forward. It
happened that they had not more than a hundred yards to go, so the
whole thing was plainly seen.

The car was ten yards across the sheet of mist before the effect of
its motion was apparent. Then the mist, torn by the car-eddy, swirled
madly in their wake. The motorists yelled delightedly. There is a
picture extant, taken at just this moment. It shows the driver with a
foolish grin on his face, clutching the wheel and very obviously
stepping on the accelerator. A pandemonium of triumphant, hilarious
shouting--and then a very sudden silence.

The car roared on. The road curved slightly. The car did not. It went
off the road, turned over, and its engine shrieked itself into
silence. The Death Mist went on, draining from the roadway to follow
the tall, prismatically-colored cloud. It moved swiftly and blindly.
To the circling planes above it, it seemed like a blind thing
imagining itself confined, and searching for the edges of its prison.
It gave an uncanny impression of being directed by intelligence. But
the Death Mist, itself, was not alive.

Neither were the occupants of the motor car.

When Tommy got back to the laboratory after his last call for news, he
found Evelyn in the act of starting to fetch him.

"Smithers called," she said uneasily. "He says something's moving
about--" The buzzer of the telephone was humming stridently. Tommy
answered quickly.

"Just want you handy," said Smithers' calm voice. "I might have to
duck. Some Ragged Men are chasin' something. Get set, will ya?"

"Ready for anything," Tommy assured him.

Then he made it true: rifles handy, a sub-machine gun, grenades, gas
masks. He handed one to Evelyn. Smithers had one already. Then Tommy
waited, grimly ready by the Tube-mouth.

* * * * *

The warm, scent-laden breeze blew upon him. Straining his ears, he
could hear the sound of tree-fern fronds clashing in the wind. He
heard the louder sounds made by Smithers, stirring ever so slightly in
the Tube. And then he caught a vague, distant uproar. It would have
been faint and confused at best but the Tube was partly blocked by
Smithers' body, and there were the multiple bends further to
complicate the echoes. It was no more than a formless tumult through
which faint yells came occasionally. It drew nearer and neare