A strange restlessness, which the panic here in the Shore City over Togaro's arrival could not explain, pervaded Mita. To Drake it was as though by some occult force the knowledge was spreading throughout the world of impending doom. But he knew it was nothing occult. Might it not be that Togaro's followers were dispersed widely over this little globe, mingling with the people, spreading insidious, frightening propaganda? The minutes passed while Drake sat watching the arriving men whom he was to lead. The council room was in the upper story. The men came up, were checked and given instructions, and then taken to the lower floor to be equipped with belts and the drugs. Word came that the space-ship was not badly damaged. The repairs were progressing. It would be ready for the voyage by dawn. All this time, in the garden of the palace the mob had stood unnaturally silent, watching the building as though trying to guess what activities were going on inside. Messengers were constantly arriving and departing. Police were bringing in the young men whom Drake was to take into smallness. The airship from the other hemisphere came and landed near by; its officials hurried in through the police cordon at the palace doorway. As though nature were conspiring with a premonition of what the future might hold, a cloud lifted above the horizon across the city and passed near the moon; a cloud at a considerable altitude, tinged with red from the coming sunrise. It threw a red cast upon the moon. The moonlight suddenly seemed drenching all the scene with blood. An omen? Drake shuddered. He turned from the window. But the murmur down there grew to a shouting. It brought his gaze back. A rhythmic shouting--the repetition of a few words over and over. It may have started with a single voice, and the crowd took it up like a chant. "Alt, what is that?" Alt was near Drake. He listened. But Ahlma caught it first. "They say, '_The world ends tonight! Give us the drugs!_'" Like a chant the crowd was all shouting it now. "_The world ends tonight! We want the drugs!_" The council heard it. A silence fell upon the room as they listened. Then from the palace doorway, the police began shouting. A new turmoil, then the sound of thuds upon the front palace walls--missiles were being thrown. A chunk of rock came hurtling through the window. It narrowly missed Drake and fell with a crash in the midst of the sitting councilmen. It was then Drake leaped to his feet. "But this must be stopped! This is madness!" The mob was attacking the palace doorway. It surged at the foot of the steps. A rain of rocks came hurtling upward. Drake shouted, "Jain, tell the council I'm going to get large! I'll disperse this mob--Ahlma, you come with me! You can talk to them--try to calm them! Tell them you are speaking for your princess." A turmoil almost equal to the confusion in the garden now broke out in the council room. The men were all on their feet, jabbering excitedly.