nlight glitter on something in his hand.

* * * * *

Dillon noticed the same thing Coburn did at the same instant. He bounded
forward. He ran toward the village and its tumbled soldiers in great,
impossible leaps. No man could make such leaps or travel so fast. He
seemed almost to soar toward the village, shouting. Coburn and Janice
saw him reach the village. They saw him rush toward the one man who had
been going swiftly from one prone soldier to another. It was too far to
see Dillon's action, but the sunlight glittered again on something
bright, which this time flew through the air and dropped to the ground.

The villagers grouped about Dillon. There was no sign of a struggle.

"What's happened?" demanded Janice uneasily. "Those are soldiers on the
ground."

Coburn's fright prevented his caution. He shouted furiously. "He's not a
man! You saw it! No man can run so fast! You saw those jumps! He's not
human! He's--something else!"

Janice jerked her eyes to Coburn in panic. "What did you say?"

Coburn panted: "Dillon's no man! He's a monster from somewhere in space!
And he and his kind have killed those soldiers! Murdered them! And the
soldiers are men! You stay here. I'll go down there and--"

"No!" said Janice, "I'm coming too."

He took the donkey's halter and led the animal down to the village, with
Janice trembling a little in the saddle. He talked in a tight, taut,
hysterical tone. He told what he'd found up on the cliffside. He
described in detail the similitude of a man's body he'd found deflated
beside a stunted bush.

He did not look at Janice as he talked. He moved doggedly toward the
village, dragging at the donkey's head. They neared the houses very
slowly, and Coburn considered that he walked into the probability of a
group of other creatures from unthinkable other star systems, disguised
as men. It did not occur to him that his sudden outburst about Dillon
sounded desperately insane to Janice.

* * * * *

They reached the first of the fallen soldiers. Janice looked,
shuddering. Then she said thinly: "He's breathing!"

He was. He was merely a boy. Twenty or thereabouts. He lay on his back,
his eyes closed. His face was upturned like a dead man's. But his breast
rose and fell rhythmically. He slept as if he were drugged.

But that was more incredible than if he'd been dead. Regiments of men
fallen simultaneously asleep....

Cobu