eyebrows. "It wouldn't," itsaid coolly. "You do know. What follows?"
"You're something from space," accused Coburn, "sneaking around Earthtrying to find out how to conquer us! You're an Invader! You're tryingout weapons. And you want me to keep my mouth shut so we Earth peoplewon't patch up our own quarrels and join forces to hunt you down! Butwe'll do it! We'll do it!"
The thing-that-was-not-Dillon said gently: "No. My dear chap, no onewill believe you."
"We'll see about that!" snapped Coburn. "Put those cameras in the car!"
The figure that looked so human hesitated a long instant, then obeyed.It lowered the two seeming cameras into the back part of the staff car.
Janice started to say, "I ... I ..."
The pseudo-Dillon smiled at her. "You think he's insane, and naturallyyou're scared," it said reassuringly. "But he's sane. He's quite right.I am from outer space. And I'm not humoring him either. Look!"
He took a knife from his pocket and snapped it open. He deliberately ranthe point down the side of one of his fingers.
The skin parted. Something that looked exactly like foam-rubber wasrevealed. There were even bubbles in it.
The pseudo-Dillon said, "You see, you don't have to be afraid of him.He's sane, and quite human. You'll feel much better traveling with him."Then the figure turned to Coburn. "You won't believe it, but I reallylike you, Coburn. I like the way you've reacted. It's very ... human."
Coburn said to him: "It'll be human, too, when we start to hunt youdown!" He let the staff car in gear. Dillon smiled at him. He let in theclutch, and the car leaped ahead.
* * * * *
In the two camera-cases Coburn was sure that he had the cryptic devicethat was responsible for the failure of a cold-war raid. He wouldn'thave dared drive away from Dillon leaving these devices behind. If theywere what he thought, they'd be absolute proof of the truth of hisstory, and they should furnish clues to the sort of science the Invaderspossessed. Show the world that Invaders were upon it, and all the worldwould combine to defend Earth. The cold war would end.
But a bitter doubt came to him. Would they? Or would they offerzestfully to be viceroys and overseers for the Invaders, betraying therest of mankind for the privilege of ruling them even under unhumanmasters?
Janice swayed against his shoulder. He cast a swift glance at her. Herface was like marble.
"What's the matter?"
She shook her head. "I'm trying not to faint," she said unsteadily."When you told me he was from another world I ... thought you werecrazy. But when he admitted it ... when he proved it ..."
Coburn growled. The trail twisted and dived down a steep slope. Ittwisted again and ran across a rushing, frothing stream. Coburn droveinto the rivulet. Water reared up in wing-like sheets on either side.The staff car climbed out, rocking, on the farther side. Coburn put itto the ascent beyond. The trail turned and climbed and descended as thestony masses of the hills required.
"He's--from another world!" repeated Janice. Her teeth chattered. "Whatdo they want--creatures like him? How--how many of them are there?Anybody could be one of them! What do they want?"
"This is a pretty good world," said Coburn fiercely. "And his kind willwant it. We're merely the natives, the aborigines, to them. Maybe theyplan to wipe us out, or enslave us. But they won't! We can spot themnow! They don't bleed. Scratch one and you find--foam-rubber. X-rayswill spot them. We'll learn to pick them out--and when some specialistslook over those things that look like cameras we'll know more still!Enough to do something!"
"Then you think it's an invasion from space?"
"What else?" snapped Coburn.
His stomach was a tight cramped knot now. He drove the car hard!
* * * * *
In air miles the distance to be covered was relatively short. In roadmiles it seemed interminable. The road was bad and curving beyondbelief. It went many miles east and many miles west for every mile ofsouthward gain. The hour grew late. Coburn had fled Ardea at sunrise,but they'd reached Naousa after midday and he drove frantically overincredible mountain roads until dusk. Despite sheer recklessness,however, he could not average thirty miles an hour. There were timeswhen even the half-track had to crawl or it would overturn. The sun set,and he went on up steep grades and down steeper ones in the twilight.Night fell and the headlights glared ahead, and the staff car clankedand clanked and grumbled and roared on through the darkness.
They probably passed through villages--the headlights showed stonehovels once or twice--but no lights appeared. It was midnight beforethey saw a moving yellow spot of brightness with a glare as of fire uponsteam above it. There were other small lights in a row behind it, andthey saw that all the lights moved.
"A railroad!" said Coburn. "We're getting somewhere!"
It was a railroad train on the other side of a valley, but they did notreach the track. The highway curved away from it.
At two o'clock in the morning they saw electric lights. The highwaybecame suddenly passable. Presently they ran into the still, silentstreets of a slumbering town--Serrai--an administrative center for thispart of Greece. They threaded its ways while Coburn watched for a properplace to stop. Once a curiously-hatted policeman stared blankly at themunder an arc lamp as the staff car clanked and rumbled past him. Theysaw a great pile of stone which was a church. They saw a railroadstation.
Not far away there was a building in which there were lights. A man inuniform came out of its door.
Coburn stopped a block away. There were uneasy stirrings, and thewhite-bearded passenger from the village said incomprehensible things ina feeble voice. Coburn got Janice out of the car first. She was stiffand dizzy when she tried to walk. The Greek was in worse conditionstill. He clung to the side of the staff car.
"We tell the truth," said Coburn curtly, "when we talk to the police. Wetell the whole truth--except about Dillon. That sounds too crazy. Wetell it to top-level officials only, after they realize that somethingthey don't know anything about has really taken place. Talk of Invadersfrom space would either get us locked up as lunatics or would create apanic. This man will tell what happened up there, and they'llinvestigate. But we take these so-called cameras to Salonika, and get toan American battleship."
He lifted Dillon's two cameras by the carrying-straps. And the strapspulled free. They'd held the cases safely enough during a long journeyon foot across the mountains. But they pulled clear now.
Coburn had a bitter thought. He struck a match. He saw the leather caseson the floor of the staff car. He picked up one of them. He took it tothe light of the headlights, standing there in the resonant darkness ofa street in a city of stone houses.
* * * * *
The leather was brittle. It was friable, as if it had been in a fire.Coburn plucked it open, and it came apart in his hands. Inside there wasthe smell of scorched things. There was a gritty metallic powder.Nothing else. The other carrying-case was in exactly the same condition.
Coburn muttered bitterly: "They were set to destroy themselves if theygot into other hands than Dillon's. We haven't a bit of proof that hewasn't a human being. Not a shred of proof!"
He suddenly felt a sick rage, as if he had been played with and mocked.The raid from Bulgaria was serious enough, of course. It would havekilled hundreds of people and possibly hundreds of others would havebeen enslaved. But even that was secondary in Coburn's mind. Theimportant thing was that there were Invaders upon Earth. Non-humanmonsters, who passed for humans through disguise. They had been able totravel through space to land secretly upon Earth. They moved unknownamong men, learning the secrets of mankind, preparing for--what?
III
They got into Salonika early afternoon of the next day, after many hoursupon an antique railroad train that puffed and grunted and groaned amonginterminable mountains. Coburn got a taxi to take Janice to the officeof the Breen Foundation which had sent her up to the north of Greece toestablish its philan
thropic instruction courses. He hadn't much to sayto Janice as they rode. He was too disheartened.
In the cab, though, he saw great placards on which newspaper headlinesappeared in Greek. He could make out the gist of them. Essentially, theyshrieked that Bulgarians had invaded Greece and had been wiped out. Hemade out the phrase for valiant Greek army. And the Greek army wasvaliant enough, but it hadn't had anything to do with this.
From the police station in Serrai--he had been interviewed there untildawn--he knew what action had been taken. Army planes had flownnorthward in the darkness, moved by the Mayor's, and Coburn's, andJanice's tale of Bulgarian soldiers on Greek soil, sleeping