Sattell agreed. Lockley, rather absurdly, felt uncomfortable because he
was going to have to talk to Vale. He had nothing against the man, but
Vale was, in a way, his rival although Jill didn't know of his folly and
Vale could hardly guess it.
He signed off to Sattell and swung the base line instrument to make a
similar check with Vale. It was now ten minutes after nine. He aligned
the instrument accurately, flipped the switch, and began to say as
patiently as before, "Calling Vale. Calling Vale. Lockley calling Vale.
Over."
He turned the control for reception. Vale's voice came instantly,
scratchy and hoarse and frantic.
"Lockley! Listen to me! There's no time to tell me anything. I've got to
tell you. Something came down out of the sky here nearly an hour ago.
It landed in Boulder Lake, and at the last instant there was a terrific
explosion and a monstrous wave swept up the shores of the lake. The
thing that came down vanished under water. I saw it, Lockley!"
Lockley blinked. "Wha-a-at?"
"A thing came down out of the sky!" panted Vale. "It landed in the lake
with a terrific explosion. It went under. Then it came up to the surface
minutes later. It floated. It stuck things up and out of itself, pipes or
wires. Then it moved around the lake and came in to the shore. A thing
like a hatch opened and ... creatures got out of it. Not men!"
Lockley blinked again. "Look here--"
"Dammit, listen!" said Vale shrilly, "I'm telling you what I've seen.
Things out of the sky. Creatures that aren't men. They landed and set
up something on the shore. I don't know what it is. Do you understand?
The thing is down there in the lake now. Floating. I can see it!"
Lockley swallowed. He couldn't believe this immediately. He knew
nothing of radar reports or the seismograph record. He'd seen a barely
balanced rock roll down the mountainside below him, and he'd heard a
growling bass rumble behind the horizon, but things like that didn't add
up to a conclusion like this! His first conviction was that Vale was out
of his head.
"Listen," said Lockley carefully. "There's a short wave set over at the
construction camp. They use it all the time for orders and reports and so
on. You go there and report officially what you've seen. To the Park
Service first, and then try to get a connection through to the Army."
Vale's voice came through again, at once raging and despairing, "They
won't believe me. They'll think I'm a crackpot. You get the news to
somebody who'll investigate. I see the thing, Lockley. I can see it now.
At this instant. And Jill's over at the construction camp--"
Lockley was unreasonably relieved. If Jill was at the camp, at least she
wasn't alone with a man gone out of his mind. The reaction was normal.
Lockley had seen nothing out of the ordinary, so Vale's report seemed
insane.
"Listen here!" panted Vale again. "The thing came down. There was a
terrific explosion. It vanished. Nothing happened for a while. Then it
came up and found a place where it could come to shore. Things came
out of it. I can't describe them. They're motes even in my binoculars.
But they aren't human! A lot of them came out. They began to land
things. Equipment. They set it up. I don't know what it is. Some of them
went exploring. I saw a puff of steam where something moved.
Lockley?"
"I'm listening," said Lockley. "Go on!"
"Report this!" ordered Vale feverishly. "Get it to Military Information
in Denver, or somewhere! The party of creatures that went off
exploring hasn't come back. I'm watching. I'll report whatever I see.
Get this to the government. This is real. I can't believe it, but I see it.
Report it, quick!"
His voice stopped. Lockley painfully realigned the instrument again for
Sattell, thirty miles to the southeast.
Sattell surprisingly answered the first call. He said in an astonished
voice, "Hello! I just got a call from Survey. It seems that the Army knew
there was a Survey team in here, and they called to say that radars had
spotted something coming down from space, right after eight o'clock.
They wanted to know if any of us supposedly sane observers noticed
anything peculiar about that time."
Lockley's scalp crawled suddenly. Vale's report had disturbed him, but
more for the man's sanity than anything else. But it could be true! And
instantly he remembered that Jill was very near the place where
frighteningly impossible things were happening.
"Vale just told me," said Lockley, his voice unsteady, "that he saw
something come down. His story was so wild I didn't believe it.
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