The animal sounds quieted and died away. Nora heard the sound of the body falling to the floor--a limp, soft sound of finality. She turned and saw Jim Wilson with his hands still extended and cupped. The terrible hands from which the stench of a terrible life was drifting away into empty air. Wilson looked down at his handiwork. "He's dead," Wilson said slowly. He turned to face Frank and Nora. There was a great disappointment in his face. "That's all there is to it," he said, dully. "He's just--dead." Without knowing it for what it was, Jim Wilson was full of the futile aftertaste of revenge. He bent down to pick up Minna's body. There was a small blue hole in the right cheek and another one over the left eye. With a glance at Frank and Nora, Jim Wilson covered the wounds with his hand as though they were not decent. He picked her up in his arms and walked across the lobby and up the stairs with the slow, quiet tread of a weary man. The sound of the jeep welled up again, but it was further away now. Frank Brooks took Nora's hand and they hurried out into the street. As they crossed the sidewalk, the sound of the jeep was drowned by a sudden swelling of the wailings to the northward. On still a new note, they rose and fell on the still air. A note of panic, of new knowledge, it seemed, but Frank and Nora were not paying close attention. The sounds of the jeep motor had come from the west and they got within sight of the Madison-Well intersection in time to see the jeep hurtle southward at its maximum speed. Frank yelled and waved his arms, but he knew he had been neither seen nor heard. They were given little time for disappointment however, because a new center of interest appeared to the northward. From around the corner of Washington Street, into Clark, moved three strange figures. There was a mixture of belligerence and distress in their actions. They carried odd looking weapons and seemed interested in using them upon something or someone, but they apparently lacked the energy to raise them although they appeared to be rather light. The creatures themselves were humanoid, Frank thought. He tightened his grip on Nora's hand. "They've seen us." "Let's not run," Nora said. "I'm tired of running. All it's gotten us is trouble. Let's just stand here." "Don't be foolish." "I'm not running. You can if you want to." Frank turned his attention back to the three strange creatures. He allowed natural curiosity full reign. Thoughts of flight vanished from his mind. "They're so thin--so fragile," Nora said. "But their weapons aren't." "It's hard to believe, even seeing them, that they're from another planet." "How so? They certainly don't look much like us." "I mean with the talk, for so long, about flying saucers and space flight and things like that. Here they are, but it doesn't seem possible." "There's something wrong with them."