he sun came nearest to Earth--twenty-six million miles
in another few weeks. Then whirling away she would pass to the western
elongation in a month and a half and drive out into space. Venus
circled the sun in a year of 225 days, and in 534 days she would again
reach her eastern elongation with reference to the earth, and draw
near us again.

They were reluctant to express themselves, these men who made nothing
of weighing and analyzing stars a million of light years away, but
_if_ the popular conception was correct and _if_ we could pass through
the following weeks without further assault, we could count on a year
and a half before the menace would again return. And in a year and a
half--well, the physicists would be working--and we might be prepared.

Captain Blake had made his report, but this, it seemed, was not
enough. He was ordered to come to Washington, and, with Colonel
Boynton, he flew across the country to tell again his incredible
story.

* * * * *

It was a notable gathering before which he appeared. All the branches
of the service were represented; there were men in the uniform of
admirals and generals; there were heads of Departments. And the
Secretary of War was in charge.

He told his story, did Blake, before a battery of hostile eyes. This
was not a gathering to be stampeded by wild scareheads, nor by popular
clamor. They wanted facts, and they wanted them proved. But the
gravity with which they regarded the investigation was shown by their
invitation to the representatives of foreign powers to attend.

"I have told you all that happened," Blake concluded, "up to the
coming of Colonel Boynton. May I reiterate one fact? I do not wonder
at your questioning my state of mind and my ability to observe
correctly. But I must insist, gentlemen, that while I got a shot of
their gas and my muscles and my nervous system were paralyzed, my
brain was entirely clear. I saw what I saw; those creatures were
there; they entered the buildings; they carried off Lieutenant McGuire
and another man.

"What they were or who they were I cannot say. I do not know that they
were men, but their insane shrieking in that queer unintelligible talk
is significant. And that means of communication corresponds with the
radio reception of which you know.

"If you gentlemen know of any part of this earth that can produce such
a people, if you know of any people or country in this world that can
p