Along toward first light we were heading back into the center of the camp, having completed a full circuit of the perimeter on foot. The suits we wore were light enough, despite the helmets we needed for communications, but there was still the feeling of restriction, even without the face plates. I was tired. I had gone almost twenty hours without sleep. As we walked, Kingsford held a hand to his head just above the eye patch. He had a headache and his good eye was red. He stopped a moment to rub the eye and take a cigarette from a packet in his tunic. He offered me one and struck his lighter so that we could light the cigarettes. Suddenly, he held his hand very still. "Look, Mr. Rogers," he said. "Look. The flame. How it flickers. The air is moving. The air is moving, Mr. Rogers." I turned my head up automatically, but detected no change in the stillness. Kingsford studied the flame and began to smile. Then my headset came alive with a voice. "Captain. Captain Kingsford. This is Pierce. It's blowing up a breeze here. It's becoming a wind as I speak. The sun has not quite risen, but it's almost light enough. I don't see anything, but I feel the wind. It's stronger each second." We could feel it now. Gradually at first, then stronger, the air began to stir and move in the direction of Pierce's emplacement. Other positions began to report the movement in the air. Then the first light of Aldebaran broke over the horizon in a brilliant red glow and we heard Pierce again. "I see it," he called. "It's like a ship. It seems bigger than the Algonquin. Captain, it's moving toward us, but not directly at us. I make the distance to be about seven miles, but I can't be sure. I don't know how big it is. What's its size, Captain?" "Has it a long snout and sort of a funnel at the front?" Kingsford demanded. "Yes, sir. It's moving very fast and there's a cloud rising before it, and the cloud is disappearing into the funnel. I can hear it now. It must be closer than I thought. Lord, it's huge. The wind is much stronger now. It's getting difficult to breathe." "And the eyes, Pierce. Can you see the eyes?" "No, sir. But we can't breathe too well here now. It's coming closer. Closer." We could see it now. It was moving in a direction generally toward the camp, but if it maintained its course, it would bypass us by a good distance. It was huge. Much greater than Kingsford had described, at least so it seemed. Slender at the front and tapering to a huge girth near its tail. A great billow of dust rose before its path, disappearing in the bugle-like snout. The wind increased far beyond any I'd ever known, and then I could see the eyes. "You see, Mr. Rogers," Kingsford shouted. "It has expected us. It is grown. Six times its size, Mr. Rogers. The men of the Essex nurtured it well. Ha!" * * * * * The men at all positions were calling over the communications, but none had fired their weapons yet.