ing. But first I will sit here a little
while and rest."

And he died quietly in his chair as he sat there.

Dr. Mason made an entry in his private journal: "Charles Vincent,
a completely authenticated case of premature aging, one of the
most clear-cut in all gerontology. This man was known to me for
years, and I here aver that as of one year ago he was of normal
appearance and physical state, and that his chronology is also
correct, I having also known his father. I examined the subject
during the period of his illness, and there is no question at all
of his identity, which has also been established for the record
by fingerprinting and other means. I aver that Charles Vincent at
the age of thirty is dead of old age, having the appearance and
organic condition of a man of ninety."

Then the doctor began to make another note: "As in two other
cases of my own observation, the illness was accompanied by a
certain delusion and series of dreams, so nearly identical in the
three men as to be almost unbelievable. And for the record, and
no doubt to the prejudice of my own reputation, I will set down
the report of them here."

But when Dr. Mason had written that, he thought about it for a
while.

"No, I will do no such thing," he said, and he struck out the
last lines he had written. "It is best to let sleeping dragons
lie."

And somewhere the faceless men with the smell of the pit on them
smiled to themselves in quiet irony.

END

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Raphael Aloysius Lafferty

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