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't say they were Martian, sir--only that they seemed to be unearthly. And they were not the conventional saucer-shaped things--they acted like saucers skimming across the water. That's what made me think they were genuine. And they didn't seem to be going fast enough so that I'd expect to hear a roar like a jet-plane.
"It struck me that this might not be the way they fly, naturally, but the way they might fly if the pilots were having trouble adjusting the controls to a heavier atmosphere than they were used to."
Clayton tapped the tabletop with his fingers. "What about you, Marty? Did you see three ships?"
Big Gene Marty, football star, was the least nervous. "Can't be sure about ships, Doc," he rumbled. "I did see something strange disappearing over the horizon. It--I mean they--might have been what Tony says; but whatever it was, there were three of them. But I saw something else, because I was looking in another direction. What I saw first was a couple of funny-looking shapes floating down near the ground. Didn't look like parachutists, yet they seemed big enough to be men--or at least, small men."
"Interesting. All right, what about the rest of you? How many saw the ships?"
* * * * *
A chorus answered him. "I see," Clayton mused. "You all agree on the behavior. And you all think there were three--not four--not two. Three?"
It was agreed.
Clayton rustled the pile of newspapers. "The reports in here vary. I learn with amazement that you gentlemen seem to have missed completely the spurts of flame that issued from the alien ships--flame which is reported to have set a house on fire. And no one seems to have noticed that the invaders, in descending, glided on huge black wings."
Corelli blushed a fiery crimson. "Dr. Clayton," he protested, "we aren't making these things up for popular consumption. We're just telling you what we actually saw--that is--what--what--we--saw looked like to us."
Clayton nodded. "Of course.