The Menace From Earth ssc Read Online Free PDF

it's time to jump?"
    He faced her, then looked back at the window. "I don't know," he said slowly, "but this rain might go on quite a while. Don't take anything you don't have to have — but don't leave anything behind you can't get along without."
    He repossessed his clothing from Mrs. Megeath while Meade was upstairs, She came down dressed in slacks and carrying two large bags; under one arm was a battered and rakish Teddy bear. "This is Winnie."
    "Winnie the Pooh?"
    "No, Winnie Churchill. When I feel bad he promises me 'blood, toil, tears, and sweat'; then I feel better. You said to bring anything I couldn't do without?" She looked at him anxiously.
    "Right." He took the bags. Mrs. Megeath had seemed satisfied with his explanation that they were going to visit his (mythical) aunt in Bakersfield before looking for jobs; nevertheless she embarrassed him by kissing him good-by and telling him to "take care of my little girl."
    Santa Monica Boulevard was blocked off from use. While stalled in traffic in Beverly Hills he fiddled with the car radio, getting squawks and crackling noises, then finally one station nearby: "— in effect," a harsh, high, staccato voice was saying, "the Kremlin has given us till sundown to get out of town. This is your New York Reporter, who thinks that in days like these every American must personally keep his powder dry. And now for a word from —" Breen switched it off and glanced at her face. "Don't worry," he said. "They've been talking that way for years,"
    "You think they are bluffing?"
    "I didn't say that. I said, 'don't worry.' "
    But his own packing, with her help, was clearly on a "Survival Kit" basis — canned goods, all his warm clothing, a sporting rifle he had not fired in over two years, a first-aid kit and the contents of his medicine chest. He dumped the stuff from his desk into a carton, shoved it into the back seat along with cans and books and coats and covered the plunder with all the blankets in the house. They went back up the rickety stairs
    for a last check.
    "Potty — where's your chart?"
    "Rolled up on the back seat shelf. I guess that's all — hey, wait a minute!" He went to a shelf over his desk and began taking down small, sober-looking magazines. "I dern near left behind my file of The Western Astronomer and of the Proceedings of the Variable Star Association ."
    "Why take them?"
    "Huh? I must be nearly a year behind on both of them. Now maybe I'll have time to read."
    "Hmm ... Potty, watching you read professional journals is not my notion of a vacation."
    "Quiet, woman! You took Winnie; I take these."
    She shut up and helped him. He cast a longing eye at his electric calculator but decided it was too much like the White Knight's mouse trap. He could get by with his slide rule.
    As the car splashed out into the street she said, "Potty, how are you fixed for cash?"
    "Huh? Okay, I guess."
    "I mean, leaving while the banks are closed and everything." She held up her purse. "Here's my bank. It isn't much, but we can use it."
    He smiled and patted her knee. "Stout fellow! I'm sitting on my bank; I started turning everything to cash about the first of the year."
    "Oh. I closed out my bank account right after we met."
    "You did? You must have taken my maunderings seriously."
    "I always take you seriously."
    Mint Canyon was a five-mile-an-hour nightmare, with visibility limited to the tail lights of the truck ahead. When they stopped for coffee at Halfway, they confirmed what seemed evident: Cajon Pass was closed and long-haul traffic for Route 66 was being detoured through the secondary pass. At long, long last they reached the Victorville cut-off and lost some of the traffic — a good thing, as the windshield wiper on his side had quit working and they were driving by the committee system. Just short of Lancaster she said suddenly, "Potty, is this buggy equipped with a snorkel?"
    "Nope."
    "Then we had better stop. But I see a light off the road."
    The light was an auto