Nothing happened apparently, except for a cloudy appearance of the air at the open end of the laboratory. Cliff touched a foot lever. The top began to grow visible, its rotations could be seen; it ran slower, began to come to a stop.
The cloud was gone. Where the airplanes and other junk had been, was nothing but a heap of grayish dust. It was this that had made the cloud.
Nothing remained, except that impalpable powder against the background of the trees.
Kay caught Cliff's arm. "Look out!" he shouted, pointing to the heap. "Something's moving in there!"
Something was. A very angry lady porcupine was scrambling out, a quillless porcupine, with a white skin, looking like nothing so much as a large, hairless rat. Cliff turned to Kay.
"We've failed," he said briefly. "Too late for this year now."
"But—the quills?"
"Inorganic material. But even the bones remain intact because there's circulation in the marrow, you see. And the Earth Giants haven't even bones. They're safe—this year!"
He flung himself down under a tree, staring up at the sky in abject despair.