_His saucer was parked in the
woods, and Mr. Steariot (from Venus)
was parked in the lobby...._
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, August 1958.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Three paths led through the woods away from the resort hotel, and of
the three two were clearly marked: one with a sign that said it led to
the lake, the other pointing toward the golf links. The third pathway
was unmarked, and this was the one that inevitably the lovers and the
honeymooners took--the path that Alice and Fred Daniels followed today.
The sun was unusually warm for this time of year, but only a few
yards along the pathway Fred and Alice were swallowed up by the great
and near-great trees of the forest. The sunlight was, except for an
occasional patch of light here and there, warded away by the foliage
above. The forest was very quiet. The pathway bridged a silent brook,
and then, perhaps a third of a mile into the woods, turned abruptly to
the left and the woods became even more dense, the pathway narrow.
Through the trees to the right at this point was a clearing, an unusual
grassy circle perhaps sixty yards in diameter. It was not the clearing
itself, however, but, instead, the glint of color in the sunlight that
caused Fred and Alice to stop and look.