"Do you suppose they've noticed the house?" Marc asked. "But I suppose they must." "Maybe not," Julie said. "They've been drunk for days. It started out as a house warming party. Do you suppose this is their idea of a joke?" * * * * * Marc turned away. "The papers are full of this sort of thing. The anxiety has driven people mad." Then suddenly he stiffened. "Maybe they've heard something! Maybe they've decided to burn their home rather than let the enemy do it for them." He ran to the radio and snapped the switch. "_Beside every man stalks the black shadow of doom...!_" the announcer groaned. At the window Julie instantly snapped to a position of rigid erectness. With cold fury she turned and regarded Marc's lank figure bent attentively to the radio speaker. Her eyes rested on her husband's impassive posterior, and glittering, unbridled madness flickered in their depths. "_When will the attack fall?_" the announcer inquired, and Julie answered him without hesitation. "Now, brother," she murmured. "Right now!" Unaware of the declaration of hostilities from the rear, Marc hung on the words of the announcer: "_We can only brace ourselves and hope...._" It was a pity he did not have the foresight--or perhaps hindsight--to follow the announcer's advice. In the next moment Julie's foot, propelled so as to accomplish the same work as an iron sledge, completed an arc that terminated in what might crudely be called a bull's eye. With a scream of mortal agony, Marc started forward, and jutted his head forthwith into the speaker of the radio. There was a dreadful splintering sound, and then with a squeal, not unlike Marc's, the announcer fell silent. Marc was unaware of this latter development; both his soul and body were too consumed with throbbing pain to be concerned any longer with such trivialities as the X Bomb and the demise of the world. The world could go to hell in beach sandals and it would be as nothing to the awful thing which had befallen him. Thrusting his hands forcibly to the seat of his anguish, he dislodged his head from the radio and regarded Julie from a crouching position. Clutching himself in a most unmindful way he stared up at his mate with almost animal loathing. "What a rotten thing to do!" he rasped. "And what a fiendish place to do it! You ... you're ... you're _inhuman_!" Julie laughed evilly. "I warned you, you reptile! I told you I couldn't stand any more!" * * * * * Marc grimaced as a new wave of pain surged upward through his body. "I just hope you're proud, waiting until a man's got his back turned and then kicking him in the...!" "There's no need to be crude about it," Julie cut in quickly. "That's funny, that is!" Marc snapped, baring his teeth. "_Me_--crude! What about you? I suppose you've been the perfect little lady in this affair? I'm not surprised you can't bear to face your crime!" "Vulgar!" Julie yelled. "Vulgar, skinny man!"