Lockley said abruptly, “This box we’re in.  It’s made by humans.”

The moustached man said quickly, “We figured that.  It’s the shell of a compost pit for the hotel that’s goin’ to be built around here.  They’ll sink it in the ground and dump garbage in it, and it’ll rot, and then it’ll be fertilizer.  These critters from space are just using it to hold us.  But what are they gonna do with us?”

There were faint squeakings.  The cover to the round opening lifted.  Three rabbits dropped down.  The cover closed with a clang.  The rabbits shivered and crouched, terrified, in one corner.

“Is this how they’re gonna feed us?” demanded the chunky man.

“Hell, no!” said the tall man, in evident disgust.  “They’re dumped in here like we were.  They’re animals.  So are we.  This is a temporary cage.  It’s got a sand floor that we can bury things in.  It won’t be any trouble to clean out.  The rabbits and us, we stay caged until they’re ready to do whatever they’re goin’ to do with us.”

“Which is what?” demanded the chunky man.

There was no answer.  They would either be killed, or they would not.  There was nothing to be done.  Meanwhile Lockley evaluated his three fellow captives as probably rather good men to have on one’s side, and bad ones to have against one.  But there was no action which was practical now.  A single guard outside, able to paralyze them by whatever means it was accomplished, made any idea of escape in daylight foolish.

“What kind of critters are they?” demanded the chunky man.  “Maybe we could figure out what they’ll do if we know what kind of thing they are!”

“They’ve got eyes like ours,” said Lockley.

The three men looked at him.

“They landed by daylight,” said Lockley.  “Early daylight.  They could certainly have picked the time for their landing.  They picked early morning so they could have a good long period of daylight in which to get settled before night.  If they’d been night moving creatures, they’d have landed in the dark.”

The tall man said, “Sounds reasonable.  I didn’t think of that.”

“They saw me at a distance,” said Lockley, “and I didn’t see them.  They’ve got good eyes.  They beat me up to the top of the mountain and hid to see what I’d do.  When they saw me looking the lake over after checking up on Vale, they paralyzed me and brought me here.  So they’ve got eyes like ours.”

“This guy Vale,” said the chunky man.  “What happened to him?”

Lockley said, “Probably what’ll happen to us.”

“Which is what?” asked the chunky man.

Lockley did not answer.  He thought of Jill, waiting anxiously at the edge of the woods not far from the camp.  She’d surely have watched him climbing.  She might have followed his climb all the way to where he went around to Vale’s post.  But she wouldn’t have seen his capture and she might be waiting for him now.  It wasn’t likely, though, that she’d climb into the trap that had taken Vale and then himself.  She must realize that that spot was one to be avoided.