The whole earth had the jitters because of the apparently inevitable trial of strength between its two most gigantic powers.  Their rivalry seemed irreconcilable.  Most of humanity dreaded their conflict with appalled resignation because there seemed no way to avoid it.  Yet it was admittedly possible that an all-out war between them might end with all the world dead, even plants and microbes in the deepest seas.  It was ironic that the most reasonable hope that anybody could have was that one or the other nation would come upon some weapon so new and irresistible that it could demand and receive the surrender of the other without atomic war.

Atom bombs could have done the trick, had only one nation owned them.  But both were now armed so that by treacherous attack either could almost wipe out the other.  There was no way to guard against desperate and terrible retaliation by survivors of the first attacked country.  It was the certainty of retaliation which kept the actual war a cold one—­a war of provocation and trickery and counter-espionage, but not of mutual extermination.

But Lockley had suggested—­because it was the worst of possibilities—­that America’s rival had developed a new weapon which could win so long as it was not attributed to its user.  If the United States believed itself attacked from space, it would not launch missiles against men.  It would ask help, and help would be given even by its rival if the invasion were from another planet.  Men would always combine against not-men.  But if this were a ship from no farther than the other side of the earth, and only pretended to be from an alien world ...  America could be conquered because it believed it was fighting monsters instead of other men.

This was not likely, but it was believable.  There was no proof, but in the nature of things proof would be avoided.  And if his idea should happen to be true, the disaster could be enormously worse than an invasion from another star.  This first landing could be only a test to make sure that the new weapon was unknown to America and could not be countered by Americans.  The crew of this ship would expect to be successful or be killed.  In a way, if an atom bomb had to be used to destroy them, they would have succeeded.  Because other ships could land in American cities where they could not be bombed without killing millions; where they could demand surrender under pain of death.  And get it.

Lockley looked at the sun.  He glanced at his watch.

“That would be south,” he indicated.  “It’s the shortest way for us to get to where you’ll be reasonably safe and I can tell what I know to someone who may use it.”

Jill followed obediently.  They disappeared into the woods.  They could not be seen from the highway.  They could not even be detected from aloft.  When they had gone a mile, Jill made her one and final protest.

“But it can’t be that they aren’t monsters!  They must be!”