The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Leader, by
William Fitzgerald Jenkins (AKA Murray Leinster)

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Leader

Author: William Fitzgerald Jenkins (AKA Murray Leinster)

Illustrator: van Dongen

Release Date: November 24, 2007 [EBook #23612]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEADER ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Bruce Albrecht, Stephen Blundell
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration]

THE
LEADER

By
MURRAY
LEINSTER

_The trouble with being a Superman,
with Super powers, and knowing it, is
it's so easy to overlook the unpleasant
possibility of a super-superman!_

Illustrated by van Dongen

... The career of The Leader remains one of the mysteries of
history. This man, illegitimate and uneducated, hysterical and
superstitious, gathered about him a crowded following of those who
had been discontented, but whom he turned into fanatics. Apparently
by pure force of personality he seized without resistance the
government of one of the world's great nations. So much is unlikely
enough. But as the ruler of a civilized country he imposed upon its
people the absolute despotism of a primitive sultanate. He
honeycombed its society with spies. He imprisoned, tortured, and
executed without trial or check. And while all this went on he
received the most impassioned loyalty of his subjects! Morality was
abandoned at his command with as much alacrity as common sense. He
himself was subject to the grossest superstitions. He listened to
astrologers and fortunetellers--and executed them when they foretold
disaster. But it is not enough to be amazed at the man himself. The
great mystery is that people of the Twentieth Century, trained in
science and technically advanced, should join in this orgy of what
seems mere madness ...

_Concise History of Europe._ Blaisdell.

* * * * *

Letter from Professor Albrecht Aigen, University of Brunn, to the Herr
Gener