u bring back Dick Knight and Sergeant Phillips?"

"Do you want to be buried lying down or standing up?"

The collective courage rallied. There were catcalls and hoots, stamping
of feet.

Suddenly from the balcony over George's head a man leaned over, a metal
folding chair in his hands, aiming at George's head. An instant later
the man disappeared in a flash and the chair dropped toward George. He
moved only a few inches and the chair thudded to the platform before
him. He had not looked up.

For a moment the crowd sat stunned. Then they rose and started for the
blue man. Some drew guns they had brought. The hall was filled with
blinding flashes, with smoke, with a horrible stench, screams, swearing,
cries of fear and pain. There was a rush for the exits. Some died at the
feet of their fellow men.

In the end, when all were gone, George of Zanthar still stood on the
platform, alone. There was no movement except the twitching of the new
dead, the trampled, on the floor.

* * * * *

Events happened fast after that. The Illinois National Guard mobilized,
sent a division to Brentwood to hunt George down. He met them at the
city square. They rumbled in and trained machine guns and tank rifles on
him. The tanks and personnel flashed out of existence before a shot was
fired.

Brentwood was ordered evacuated. The regular Army was called in.
Reconnaissance planes reported George was still standing in the city
square. Jet planes materialized just above the hills and made sudden
dives, but before their pilots could fire a shot, they were snuffed out
of the air in a burst of fire.

Bombers first went over singly, only to follow the jets' fate. A
squadron bloomed into a fiery ball as it neared the target. A long-range
gun twenty miles away was demolished when its ammunition blew up shortly
before firing.

Three days after George had killed his first man, action ceased. The
countryside was deathly still. Not a living person could be seen for
several miles around. But George still stood patiently in the square. He
stood there for three more days and yet nothing happened.

On the fourth day, he sensed that a solitary soldier had started toward
the city from five miles to the east. In his mind's eye he followed the
soldier approaching the city. The soldier, a sergeant, was bearing a
white flag that fluttered in the breeze; he was not armed. After an hour
he saw the sergeant enter the square an