ten o'clock
Vehicles were abandoned everywhere . Reports of what was happening on Patton Place grew more confused . The gathering nearby crowds impeded the police and firemen . The Robots , by ten o'clock , were using a single great beam of dull-red light . It was two or three feet broad . It came from a spluttering , hissing cylinder mounted on runners which the Robots dragged along the ground , and the beam was like that of a great red searchlight . It swung the length of Patton Place in both directions .