CHAPTER XV
Less than five minutes later, they were stationary. The slowing lifts purred and the landing ladder hissed down.
Herb and Norma were upon it.
"About a—five hundred yards," Herb said. "Over that way: the highway. Let's go!"
Running at his side, Norma prayed desperately for a car to come soon.
They sprinted the last short distance because of growing headlights from the south. The car was coming fast, and Herb jumped into the roadway, waving his hands.
The car came on, sounding its horn hysterically. Herb waved and brakes squealed, and the car, at almost the last instant, veered away from him. The wind of its passing rustled his hair, and the horn still bleating, it slowly dwindled as the red tail lights faded into the darkness.
They waited. Five minutes passed.
"One's got to come!"
Early fire hung over the ocean from the as yet invisible sun. Dew lay on the plowed field behind them. The air was chill.
It seemed that the sun was symbolic fire slowly creeping and coloring the sky, slowly spreading over the world.
"What time is it?" Herb asked.
"Here's a car! Here's a car!"
Both of them leaped into the highway, waving and jumping up and down.
A long way away, the driver set his brakes, and the car coasted slowly, passed them, and finally stopped.
They ran to it. Herb jerked open the door. "You've got to take us to Washington!" Herb said.
Norma, arriving behind him, said, "It's a matter of life and death!"
"Then get in," the man said.
Overhead a jet thundered in to locate the spider ship.
They were in the car.
"You've got to drive us to an apartment in Georgetown," Norma said.
"Lady, I've been driving all night."
"You've got to!" The urgency in her voice was nearly that of hysteria.
The driver started the car. "If it's that urgent...."
"It is," Herb said.
"Hurry, please, please hurry. Don't ask us to explain. Just hurry."
The driver stepped down on the gas. The car leaped ahead.