Although led initially by Explorers, most groups had long since lost their guides. As the intent of the troops had become clear, the Explorers had vanished. This did not greatly disturb the officers, who had been well briefed by Colonel Lang, although it occasioned a mild spookiness among the ranks, inclining them to start at the least sound and move hastily away from anything that resembled a Presence.‘You don’t understand,’ a young lieutenant remonstrated with his men. ‘When we get the orders, we’re going to blow them up. They won’t be able to do anything to us if they’re blown up!’From time to time a shadowy, dusk-hidden figure might approach a nervous group to ask some such question as, ‘How much of them do you suppose is showing? Most of the Presence is underground. If we blow up the top, what’s the bottom part going to do?’The shadowy figure would then drift away, leaving the enlisted men to pass this question on to their fellows. They didn’t know who had asked them – just ‘somebody.’ The officer, aware that hysteria had gone a bit further than consonant with discipline, tried to find the somebody, with no success, and the Tripsinger who had started the rumor moved back into the ranges to think up something else, equally troublesome.This kind of harassment, which was widespread, made the Tripsingers who did it feel slightly better, but did almost nothing to mitigate the danger to the Presences.
