street. Gosh, Mr. Van Pelt, you'd think it'd take a cannon
for something like that. But it has something to do with Walt Hutner and
all the Leopards, too."

I said enthusiastically, "Very good, Sol. That's fine. Find out where
the cellar is, and we'll go interview Hutner."

"But Mr. Van Pelt, the pictures--"

"Sorry. I have to call the office." I turned my back on him and headed
for the car.

* * * * *

The noise was louder, and the flashes in the sky brighter--it looked as
though they were moving this way. Well, I didn't have any money tied up
in the car, so I wasn't worried about leaving it in the street. And
somebody's cellar seemed like a very good place to be. I called the
office and started to tell Harrison what we'd found out; but he stopped
me short. "Sandy, where've you been? I've been trying to call you
for--Listen, we got a call from Fordham. They've detected radiation
coming from the East Side--it's got to be what's going on up there!
Radiation, do you hear me? That means atomic weapons! Now, you get th--"

Silence.

"Hello?" I cried, and then remembered to push the talk button. "Hello?
Harrison, you there?"

Silence. The two-way radio was dead.

I got out of the car; and maybe I understood what had happened to the
radio and maybe I didn't. Anyway, there was something new shining in the
sky. It hung below the clouds in parts, and I could see it through the
bottom of the clouds in the middle; it was a silvery teacup upside down,
a hemisphere over everything.

It hadn't been there two minutes before.

* * * * *

I heard firing coming closer and closer. Around a corner a bunch of cops
came, running, turning, firing; running, turning and firing again. It
was like the retreat from Caporetto in miniature. And what was chasing
them? In a minute I saw. Coming around the corner was a kid with a
lightning-blue satin jacket and two funny-looking guns in his hand;
there was a silvery aura around him, the same color as the lights in the
sky; and I swear I saw those cops' guns hit him twenty times in twenty
seconds, but he didn't seem to notice.

Sol and the kid from the candy store were right beside me. We took
another look at the one-man army that was coming down the street toward
us, laughing and prancing and firing those odd-looking guns. And then
the three of us got out of there, heading for the cellar. Any cellar.

V

Priam's Maw