CHAPTER XXII truly believe that that day was the longest and worst I ever managed to live through.
The aliens who ringed the castle did not attack in force: but they maintained a kind of sullen, dangerous watchfulness over the place, and every time one of us showed himself at a window, a rifle cracked and a slug spread itself on a wall nearby or buried itself in the ceiling above him.
“What are they doing?” Marion asked me again and again. “Why are they waiting?” And I could not tell her.
The night came, but our sleep was no more than an occasional leaden doze which left us unrefreshed, with gummy aching eyes and minds gnawed by worry.
Where in hell was Geoff?
Had they slipped in and abducted him, right out from beneath our noses? Hardly. The doors and windows were still bolted.
Had
