ray broke from the last
clutching strands of thorn bush and began beating burrs from his legs.
"Find anything?" he asked.

"Not a blasted thing. It's downright crazy, our clambering around this
woods. What will we find? A couple of rabbits?"

"That body in the well has to be investigated," Mowbray said,
seriously. "Pretty odd deal."

"What progress have they made?"

"They've located the outfit that held this place in trust, but the guy
in charge had a stroke or something. He can't be questioned. They may
never be able to question him. An old guy named Pride. He's in pretty
bad shape."

"Chances are he wouldn't know anything about it even if they could ask
him. What would he have been doing out here?"

"There's that funny fire in the basement, too. Nothing routine about
that. Fire so hot it melted rock. A lot of unanswered questions
here."

"If they'd ask me, I'd tell them--"

Mulcahey Davis' throat froze as a terrible cry smote his ears. Mowbray
paled suddenly and the two men looked at each other in instinctive
fear.

But they were tried and tested law-enforcement officers and were not
held in the grip of terror for long. "Did you hear that?" Mulcahey
Davis said.

"Good lord, man! How could I help it!"

"Where'd it come from?"

"Over there."

"Let's go."

The two troopers plunged again into the undergrowth to emerge at the
edge of an open field. And regardless of their personal courage and
experience in their line of effort, what they saw froze them anew.

A giant of a man--a creature of godlike proportions stood in the open
field, washed by the rays of the setting sun. His great arms were held
aloft and he was looking up into the sky with a terrifying expression
that was a mixture of pain and rage.

He was speaking and his great voice echoed in what was remindful of a
thunderous prayer. "I know not the purpose for which I was created but
well do I now know my dedicated task. Vengeance! Vengeance such as
this world or any other has never seen!"

With this the giant--clad in a strange colorful uniform of some
sort--dropped to his knees and lowered his great head into his hands.

Mowbray's face was grim and alert. "Come on," he whispered. "We're
behind him so we get a break. Move in quietly. And let's get him
before he sees us. I've got a hunch he could lick ten of us and we
don't want to use our guns."

They crossed the field softly and moved in behind the kneeling man.
They acted in concert w