Others from farther away came to see who had cried
out, and remained to gaze fascinated at the man on the grass. Quickly
the murmur spread across the Square, and from its every part men and
women and children streamed towards the center of interest--and then,
when they saw, backed away slowly and fearfully, with staring eyes, from
where the lone figure stood.

* * * * *

There was about that figure something uncanny and terrible. There, in
the hot midday hush, something was happening to it which men would say
could not happen; and men, seeing it, backed away in alarm. Quickly they
dispersed. Soon there were only white, frightened faces peering from
behind buildings and trees.

Before their very eyes the giant was growing.

When he had first emerged, he had been around eleven feet tall, and now,
within three minutes, he had risen close to sixteen feet.

His great body maintained its perfect proportions. It was that of an
elderly man clad simply in a gray business suit. The face was kind, its
clear-chiselled features indicating fine spiritual strength; on the
white forehead beneath the sparse gray hair were deep-sunken lines which
spoke of years of concentrated work.

No thought of malevolence could come from that head with its gentle blue
eyes that showed the peace within, but fear struck ever stronger into
those who watched him, and in one place a woman fainted; for the great
body continued to grow, and grow ever faster, until it was twenty feet
high, then swiftly twenty-five, and the feet, still separated, were as
long as the body of a normal boy. Clothes and body grew effortlessly,
the latter apparently without pain, as if the terrifying process were
wholly natural.

The cars coming into Washington Square had stopped as their drivers
sighted what was rising there, and by now the bordering streets were
tangled with traffic. A distant crowd of milling people heightened the
turmoil. The northern edge was deserted, but in a large semicircle was
spread a fear-struck, panicky mob. A single policeman, his face white
and his eyes wide, tried to straighten out the tangle of vehicles, but
it was infinitely beyond him and he sent in a riot call; and as the
giant with the kind, dignified face loomed silently higher than the
trees in the Square, and ever higher, a dozen blue-coated figures
appeared, and saw, and knew fear too, and hung back awe-stricken, at a
loss what to do. For by now the