"I think ..." said Terry, unsteadily, "that it's very sensible to be crazy. We've got to ... talk this over."
Then Davis pointed out positions for the camera operators. The bolide's course should be three hundred fifty degrees, not quite on a north-south line. It might land short of, or beyond, the _Esperance_. Or it might pass many miles to the east or west. Dr. Morton needed as many pictures of it against recognizable stars as could possibly be secured.
Suddenly, there was a faint, dull rumbling in the heavens. It grew louder. Presently, cruising lights appeared in the sky. They maintained a fixed relationship to each other. They looked like moving stars, flying in formation from star-cluster to star-cluster.
"The planes just called us," he reported. "They've just had a Loran position-check and they're on the mark. They've got orders to observe any unusual phenomena occurring around nine-twelve P.M., Manila time. Using civilian terminology, it sounds like they're saying the Philippine Government asked them to come out and take a look."
The _Esperance_ headed into the wind. Her bow rose and fell. Waves washed past, and roarings trundled about under the stars overhead, and very tiny lights moved in a compact group across the firmament.
At twenty-two seconds after nine-twelve--which is to say at twenty-one hours, twelve minutes, twenty-two seconds--a light appeared in the sky from the north. It grew steadily brighter. It suddenly flared very brightly indeed, then dimmed, and continued to rise above the horizon. Seconds later it flared again, very briefly.
Terry found himself aiming the gun-camera. He pulled trigger and changed film and pulled trigger and changed film.
The bright light ceased to climb. It grew steadily brighter and brighter, and then it flared for the third time--Terry's mind asked skeptically, 'Braking rockets?'--and the light was so intense that the cracks in the yacht's deck-planking could be seen. Then the extra brilliance vanished, and suddenly the moving light was no longer white, but reddish.
Terry aimed again and fired the gun-camera.
The light passed almost directly overhead. Terry had the impression that he felt its heat upon his skin.
It plunged into the sea two miles beyond the _Esperance_. The shock-wave caused by the impact tapped on the yacht's side-planking a few seconds later. Starlight shone upon a plume of steam.