fore him.

A concerted gasp of awe and admiration rose from the crowd--a gasp
that was echoed throughout the entire ring that surrounded the ship.
There must be other openings like this one, Matson thought dully as he
stared at the being from space. Behind him an Army tank rumbled
noisily on its treads as it drove through the crowd toward the ship,
the long gun in its turret lifting like an alert finger to point at
the figure of the alien.

The stranger didn't move from his unnaturally stiff position. His
oddly luminous eyes never wavered from their fixed stare at a point
far beyond the outermost fringes of the crowd. Seven feet tall,
obviously masculine, he differed from mankind only in minor details.
His long slender hands lacked the little finger, and his waist was
abnormally small. Other than that, he was human in external
appearance. A wide sleeved tunic of metallic fabric covered his upper
body, gathered in at his narrow waist by a broad metal belt studded
with tiny bosses. The tunic ended halfway between hip and knee,
revealing powerfully muscled legs encased in silvery hose. Bright
yellow hair hung to his shoulders, clipped short in a square bang
across his forehead. His face was long, clean featured and
extraordinarily calm--almost godlike in its repose. Matson stared,
fascinated. He had the curious impression that the visitor had
stepped bodily out of the Middle Ages. His dress and haircut were
almost identical with that of a medieval courtier.

The starman raised his hand--his strangely luminous steel gray eyes
scanned the crowd--and into Matson's mind came a wave of peaceful
calm, a warm feeling of goodwill and brotherhood, an indescribable
feeling of soothing relaxation. With an odd sense of shock Matson
realized that he was not the only one to experience this. As far back
as the farthest hangers-on near the airport gates the tenseness of the
waiting crowd relaxed. The effect was amazing! Troops lowered their
weapons with shamefaced smiles on their faces. Police relaxed their
sweating vigilance. The crowd stirred, moving backward to give its
members room. The emotion-charged atmosphere vanished as though it had
never been. And a cold chill played icy fingers up the spine of Daniel
Matson. He had felt the full impact of the alien's projection, and he
was more frightened than he had ever been in his life!

* * * * *

They had been clever--damnably clever! That initial gree