eral direct hits.

The boy and his father watched the float until it was out of sight. They
knew there wouldn't be another attraction like those ants. They must
have been real professionals, the father thought. Such teamwork! Such
precision! Each one of them having a specific job to do and each doing
it to perfection. After them everything was bound to be anticlimactic.

More marchers, more bands, a few more floats. The boy was beginning to
tire. It had been a long day. Now everything was dull. "Daddy, I don't
want to see any more. Let's go home."

"We'll stay another five minutes."

* * * * *

The parade somehow seemed to be slowing down. The father yawned and let
his son down from his shoulders. He looked across the street at the
president and the other dignitaries on the reviewing stand. All were
slowly raising their hands in salute as another color guard drowsily
made its way by.

Soon the last group in the parade was passing the reviewing stand.
Another brass band. They were moving with the speed of a glacier. A full
five seconds elapsed between each note of music. Everything was
happening in slow motion. On the reviewing stand the dignified hands
went up, agonizingly slow, to a final salute and they stayed there. The
greatest minds in the world stood motionless, unalterably still. Just as
each wave of pandemonium had unfurled itself up Fifth Avenue during the
parade, so now did silence take command.

The little boy tugged at his father's coat. "Daddy! Daddy," he
pleaded, "why has the parade stopped? I wan-na-go-home--" His
words came more slowly with each passing second, like a high
speed phonograph playing at thirty-three and a third r.p.m.
"Dad-dy--why--don't--you--an--swer--me--Da--ddy--why--don't--" His
father never heard him.

* * * * *

Fifty miles above the Atlantic the fleet of spaceships hung suspended
like lanterns. In the lead ship the ant in charge of communications
reported to the commander.

"We've just received the first communique from the advance guard, sir."

"Read it to me."

The communications chief read from a large perforated paper.
"Time--0600--mission accomplished. Manhattan island cut down the
middle--immediate result of super-isonic rays; four million dead--rays
spreading east and west--estimated time of rays' full effect;
0800--island will then be neutralized--awaiting further orders." The ant
folded the paper