"To create more terror maybe?" Barbara said. "What else? To go around at night--to stir people up with a horror that they've never known before. They'll realize it's vitaplasm, the stuff of the androids too. They'll link hatreds. Maybe it's another trick--a propaganda stunt to force the fight to the finish. A stunt invented by somebody like Granger." "It seems to fit the pattern," Ed said hoarsely. "You're probably right. But this thing could have been made by the other side, too. The android side. As a means of reprisal. I've admired them. But I don't especially trust _their_ judgment, either." Ed Dukas felt sick. He wondered now how much longer anything on Earth could last. Barbara touched his arm gently. "Ed, we should notify the police. For the safety of the neighborhood." "Of course. And you won't stay out here alone tonight. You'll put up at a hotel, or I'll bunk on your floor." Barbara managed to laugh. "The building is stout. My window is high. There are plenty of tenants. I'm not dangerously stupid and I don't swoon. But I rather like the idea of having you close by." * * * * * Ed Dukas had no trouble convincing the police that he had seen something extraordinary--which was proof enough that there had been other calls, previously. Ed slept a few hours on a divan, listening, while, outside, armed men patrolled the streets and watched the backs of buildings, which were kept brilliantly illuminated. Floodlights lighted up that shaggy wood lot like day. Low, flat robot vehicles plowed through it. Nothing was found. But miles away, nearer the city, there were a dozen dead--all of them of the old order of life. They were crushed. Not a bone in their bodies was intact. They had been dragged from their beds while they slept. Horror swept through the city. The monster or monsters had been seen. They were of the same substance as the androids. Therefore, this was an android attack, clear and simple--to minds blurred by fear and fury. Scared, angry faces surrounded Ed Dukas in the streets the next morning. The coldness in him was like a stone behind his heart. He seemed to be hurled along by time, helpless to change its course. Even Barbara looked sullen and confused, though, walking beside him, she tried to sound cheerfully rational. "You know, we could all be changed over into androids. I wonder if you or I would ever want that? I think that even you are not especially sympathetic to them, except as something new and potentially great. Damn! I wish my wits were clearer. An android is a refined machine, you might say. But to be a human being is to be a thing of soul--is that it? A creature of tradition and pride, of sentiment." Ed Dukas shrugged. He felt bone and brain weary. That same day there were bloody riots in scattered localities--much worse trouble than before. It seemed like the start of an avalanche.