gag, ladies and gentlemen.
This man on the stage is the most dangerous and cold-blooded murderer
in America. He is the murderer of Lydia Davis and Genevieve Scott."

Several other men stood up. They all had masses of metal under their
left arm pits. The heavy man gave them an order. "Go up on the stage
and handcuff him. Use five pairs of handcuffs."

Then he spoke to the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen, today we
substituted tempered steel bars for the reinforcing bars. Twenty
ordinary men couldn't have bent one of those bars. What you have
witnessed was no trick. The man you see on the stage is not like us.
He has the strength of at least forty men. Please remain in your
seats. We can handle this situation."

The audience gasped and murmured. A woman screamed.

The group of men started walking towards the stage. My hands were up.
I cupped my right one and gave the heavy man a full charge of heat.
His hair went up in a bright orange flame. He dropped the red hot gun
from his smoking hand, and fell to the floor. He frantically rolled
around the aisle trying to put out his flaming clothes.

One of the other men shot at me. The little piece of lead came toward
me, flew over my shoulder. It was going at about 900 feet per second.
This was enough to kill me, Excellency. I became panic-stricken. I
fled into the wings. I was followed by a storm of little whistling
lead pellets.

The stagehands scattered hysterically before me as I ran down the
steps and out the stage door entrance. The street in front of the
theatre was packed with police cruisers and athletic-looking men in
blue uniforms.

* * * * *

Before anyone saw me, I cupped my hand, and fired the gas tank of the
nearest police cruiser. The ray of the male principle went out with
the heat ray. As I ran by the flaming car, all of the women in the
street felt something important. They all turned and looked at me.

Policemen started shooting. They piled out of their cars. The street
was echoing with yells and shouts. I was terrified. I exerted an
enormous effort of will and mustered every atom of energy at my
command. I sent a full-power heat blast up the street. I have never
marshalled a bigger blast, even in the contests at our training school
in Area Twelve.

Fifteen automobiles burst into flames. Twenty or thirty men and women
fell screaming to the sidewalk, their clothes burning. A flock of
roasted pigeons fell smoking out of