I caught a sudden note of mild alarm from Blekeke's mind, which reminded me that he was still listening for careless thoughts of mine.
The policemen continued walking toward the beach, heading to the right of the spaceship. I saw one of the Martians step back into the shadow of the ship. The others followed the policemen with their eyes.
"We best going now," Blekeke said. He reached to turn off the picture....
And his hand froze. He saw the same thing I saw, and at just about the same time.
He saw a dog.
And he must have felt the triumphant, incoherent chortle that gushed from my mind.
The dog was a small, ragged, spotted terrier. It came trotting absentmindedly over the hill after the policemen, and at the top it stopped. It quivered. It sat down, pointed its nose at the spaceship and opened its mouth in a howl I could almost hear.
Then the scene was gone; the lights in the room glowed; Blekeke was pointing the blaster at me.
And his trigger finger was trembling.