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The convertible carrying Paul Hagbolt and Margo Gelhorn and her cat softly jounced along the rutted trail, raw cliff again to the right, beach sand to the left, both now only a yard or so off Away froht pressed in The three wayfarers sharedthe starry sky Even Miaow sat up to peer ahead

"As, this road probably leads to the back door of Vandenberg Two," Paul ruate, they call it Of course I&039;ate, but in a pinch" Then after a bit: "It&039;s really funny how these saucer s next door to lauess Did you know that at one time the Space Force was really suspicious about it?"

The headlights picked up an earth-fall blocking h as the hood of the car, and recent, judging by the daranulated dirt Paul let the car stop

"End of saucer expedition," he announced cheerfully

"But the others have gone on," Margo said, standing up again "You can see where they&039;ve gone around the fall"

"Okay," Paul said et stuck in the sand, you&039;re going to have to hunt drift boards to put under the tires"

The wheels spun twice, but the convertible had no real trouble getting traction A little beyond, they came to a shallow pocket in the cliff, where the road expanded to thrice its width A dozen cars had used the extra space to park side by side, their rear bu to the cliff The first comers included a red sedan, a microbus and a white, open-back pickup truck

Beyond the last car was another green lantern and an elegantly lettered sign: PARK HERE, THEN FOLLOW THE GREEN LIGHTS

"Just like the Tihtedly "I&039;ll bet there are New Yorkers in this crowd"

"Newly arrived," Paul agreed, eyeing the cliff distrustfully as he parked beside the last car "They haven&039;t had tio ju her her jacket

"I don&039;t need it," she told hireen lantern was out on the beach, by a stand of tall sea-grass The beach was very level They could at last hear the hiss of tiny breakers - little more than wavelets, froo talked to her softly

Just beyond the cars, the cliffs swung sharply to the right and the level beach followed them inland Paul realized they must be at the mouth of the wash they&039;d crossed and re-crossed back on the highway Soain Still farther off he could see a red light blinking high up and, lint of aTwo obscurely reassuring