Seattle could produce photographs, though, and all from Seattle were fuzzy and indistinct. The reason may have been that certain quite clear pictures which showed a fishing-boat floating in mid-air, with two tow-haired children looking interestedly over the gunwale, were dismissed as obvious fakes.

Then the farthest-out of newly-discovered moons made news. It left its orbit and approached earth. The next-farthest joined it in descent. The two of them then set themselves up in a sort of Trojan system with the fourth of the newcomers to be discovered, all three following the same orbit and seeming to pursue each other round the earth, one-third of the complete circuit apart. They were, then, just 3,500 miles away.

This was proof enough that the space-ships had plans for action of some sort for the future. An impotent and defenseless planet discovered its impotence and defenselessness and waited with the idiotic curiosity of the defenseless to see what would happen.

Murfree came back from Seattle. Bud Gregory dozed contentedly in a chair tilted back against a tree before his door. When Murfree waked him to discuss what was needed, Bud looked uncomfortable but stubborn.

"Mistuh Murfree," he said doggedly, "you're a good friend of mine. I reckon you' the best friend a man ever had. You pay me ten dollars a day, rain or shine, and I'm settin' pretty. I'm satisfied. I don't want no more money. I don't want nothin' excep' what I got. You been mighty good to me, Mr. Murfree, but when you get started talkin' about doin' something about those things up in the sky that nobody ain't even seen yet, you' askin' me to go to a lot of trouble over somethin' that ain't none of my business."

He settled back in his chair, useless and completely contented.

"We're going to need a drive like you've got in the boat, only a lot bigger," said Murfree, "and a lift like you've got in the boat, and some sort of weapon that I guess you'll have to figure out."

"Mr. Murfree," said Bud, amiably, "I like you, and all that, but I ain't goin' to work myself to death for nobody!"

Murfree regarded him shrewdly. "You sound stake-bound," he said grimly. "You must have some money ahead out of what I'm paying you."

"Yes, suh," agreed Bud. "My wife's savin', and the children ketch fish and shoot squirrels an' gather woods-greens. I got almost three hundred dollars 

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