"I imagine," Dexter said thoughtfully, "that our diet would give them pause too. Where did this star of yours fall?"

"In Ed Hallam's north timber lot. Take you there, if you like. There's not much to see, though—just a big hole in the ground."

Dexter finished his beer. "Come on," he said.

The Model A parked in front of the Inn turned out to be Jeremiah's. They took off down the road at a brisk pace, wound through woods, dales, pastures and fields. Dexter hadn't the remotest idea where he was when at last Jeremiah pulled up beside a grove larger and darker than the others.

The old man squinted into the lengthening shadows. "Seems to me them auto-eating tanks ought to make better reading than a common ordinary falling star."

Halfway out of the car, Dexter stared at him. "You mean to tell me you don't see the connection?"

"What connection?"

Dexter got the rest of the way out. "Between the automobile-eaters and the spaceship, of course."

Jeremiah stared at him. "What spaceship?"

"Oh, never mind," Dexter said. "Show me the fallen star."

It was in a clearing deep in the woods. Or rather, the crater-like hole it had made was. Peering down into the hole, Dexter saw the dark, pitted surface of what could very well have been an ordinary, if unusually large, meteorite. There was nothing that suggested an opening of any kind, but the opposite wall of the crater did look as though some heavy object had been dragged—or had dragged itself—up to the level of the clearing. The underbrush showed signs of having been badly trampled in the recent past.

He pointed out the signs to Jeremiah. "See how those saplings are flattened? No human being did that. I'll bet if we followed that trail, we'd come to the remains of the first car they consumed. Whose car was it, by the way?"

"Mrs. Hopkins's new Buick. She'd just started out for the city on one of her shopping trips. She was so scared when she came running back into town her hair was standing straight out behind her head. Maybe, though, it was because she was running so fast." Abruptly Jeremiah leaned forward and squinted at the ground. "Looks almost like a big footprint right there, don't 

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