He arose, stiffly--and stumbled toward me.

Afraid? Drake afraid. Well--so was I. Bitterly, TERRIBLY
afraid.

For what we had beheld in the dusk of that dragoned,
ruined chamber was outside all experience, beyond all
knowledge or dream of science. Not their shapes--that
was nothing. Not even that, being metal, they had moved.

But that being metal, they had moved consciously,
thoughtfully, deliberately.

They were metal things with--MINDS!

That--that was the incredible, the terrifying thing. That
--and their power.

Thor compressed within Hop-o'-my-thumb--and thinking.
The lightnings incarnate in metal minacules--and
thinking.

The inert, the immobile, given volition, movement,
cognoscence--thinking.

Metal with a brain!