There came presently a sudden change to this silent battle. For the purely mental, abruptly was substituted a semblance of physical struggle. The two mingled. In the Ego-world it would not have been possible; but here in the Borderland, these bodies of half-material substance abruptly found themselves capable of it. From physical immobility there sprang movement. A panic at first; but Brutar quelled it, organized it into a concerted rush. His mob, his fighters, began pressing forward in a single direction. The Borderland slope lay well beneath the ground level of the village overhead; but off to the left there seemed an area in the outskirts of the town where the slope and the ground of Earth reached a common level. And Brutar's people were pressing that way. They surged forward; were forced back--surging and rebounding as one would press against a yielding but entangling net. Our lines, and theirs, and the red tumult of conflict surged with them; bending, but the whole scene holding its contour. And I saw that very slowly, with each forward sweep and rebound they were gaining in their direction. I heard Thone beside me addressing Will. "They will never make it. They will be too late." He seemed to realize something. "Those people up there in the town, Will--they must escape! Abandon the town! All of them escape--now before it's too late!" Will said, "If we could only communicate with them. Do you suppose we could?" And Bee eagerly put in, "Let's try. Let Rob and me try. We will go up there to the level." They explained it all to me then. Horrible, sinister, shuddering outcome! Grewsome! Of course, the Earth-people in the town must escape.... Bee and I together took ourselves up the Borderland slope to the outskirts of the village where the slope was level with the ground. We were now half a mile beyond this spectral town which was thronged with ghostly vehicles and ghostly people staring in wonderment down at the battle scene. * * * * * We came to the common level, stood upon a spectral road with a few wraiths of houses lining it. There seemed no people here--they were all crowding the town to gaze at the struggling ghosts directly beneath them there. "No one is around here, Bee." But no sooner had I said it than we saw, standing by a fence nearby, a ghost warily regarding us. A man in uniform, a State trooper I thought. He appeared, standing there alone, to have no desire to approach us. But I waved. And Bee waved. We carefully advanced upon him--carefully, for fear of startling him into flight. Gesturing, smiling with every effort to appear friendly. He understood us at last; came to the middle of the road, and there we joined him. Fantastic meeting! Ghosts, all of us, standing there in a group, gesturing. I put out my hand as a friend, and his came to meet it. Touched it? Had a billion million miles of Space and Eons of Time been between us we could hardly have been further apart!