Herb slammed on the low lift controls. The aerodynamically designed platform-like wings spun and hissed against the air. For a long moment, Herb was afraid they would not brake the fall, but the lifts caught, and the ship jerked, and Herb felt the buoyancy through the ship and through his mind and through his body. CHAPTER XV Less than five minutes later, they were stationary. The slowing lifts purred and the landing ladder hissed down. Herb and Norma were upon it. "About a--five hundred yards," Herb said. "Over that way: the highway. Let's go!" Running at his side, Norma prayed desperately for a car to come soon. They sprinted the last short distance because of growing headlights from the south. The car was coming fast, and Herb jumped into the roadway, waving his hands. The car came on, sounding its horn hysterically. Herb waved and brakes squealed, and the car, at almost the last instant, veered away from him. The wind of its passing rustled his hair, and the horn still bleating, it slowly dwindled as the red tail lights faded into the darkness. They waited. Five minutes passed. "One's got to come!" Early fire hung over the ocean from the as yet invisible sun. Dew lay on the plowed field behind them. The air was chill. It seemed that the sun was symbolic fire slowly creeping and coloring the sky, slowly spreading over the world. "What time is it?" Herb asked. "Here's a car! Here's a car!" Both of them leaped into the highway, waving and jumping up and down. A long way away, the driver set his brakes, and the car coasted slowly, passed them, and finally stopped. They ran to it. Herb jerked open the door. "You've got to take us to Washington!" Herb said. Norma, arriving behind him, said, "It's a matter of life and death!" "Then get in," the man said. Overhead a jet thundered in to locate the spider ship. They were in the car. "You've got to drive us to an apartment in Georgetown," Norma said. "Lady, I've been driving all night." "You've got to!" The urgency in her voice was nearly that of hysteria. The driver started the car. "If it's that urgent...." "It is," Herb said. "Hurry, please, please hurry. Don't ask us to explain. Just hurry." The driver stepped down on the gas. The car leaped ahead. CHAPTER XVI The new buildings pressed against the new sidewalks. The streets were empty except for their car and a turret-like Mobile Sweeper whose gutter broom whispered against the curb. A light here and there in a window heralded the end of sleep. A lone car crossed at an intersection ahead, moving slowly as if fatigued by a night-long vigil. The sun seemed reluctant to plunge the world into daylight; it balanced on the horizon in indecision. The moon was high and tiny and rode the growing blueness with a ghostlike pallor. Herb, leaning forward tensely, thought: _Suppose Bud isn't there? Suppose he's somewhere else?_