y force creeping along the
stick to his hand. He waited, reassuring himself. Then he stuck the
stick in a little farther and it vanished a little farther along toward
his hand.

He held it that way, his nostrils flaring with tenseness. Then slowly he
drew the stick back. The vanished part of it returned to sight. It came
out and was not changed in the least.

He sniffed at it. It smelled no different than it should. He felt of it
carefully. It felt normal.

Reassured, he thrust it into the area of vanishment again. He pulled it
out again. It delighted him to watch it vanish and reappear. He laughed
gleefully. The deer was forgotten in the excitement of this strange game
in the shadow of the crumbling bridge.

Suddenly the vanished end of the stick jerked in his hand. In
spontaneous alarm he pulled toward him. The stick came unwillingly.
Something held it.

* * * * *

Terrified, Jan dug his heels in the turf and pulled. Slowly inch by
inch, the stick reappeared. But with it appeared a fat, pale hand,
followed by a sleeved arm.

Jan slapped at the hand and pulled harder. The hand hung on grimly.
Another hand appeared, gripping the slowly emerging arm. It fingered its
way up the sleeve until it too gripped the stick.

Jan let go and sprang back several feet. He hesitated, ready to flee.

When he let go of the stick the hands dropped to the ground. The fat
fingers dug into the sod and hung on. A bloated face came into sight and
drew back into nothing once more.

The face appeared again and stayed, flushed with exertion. Little by
little the face was followed by a neck, shoulders, and a thick torso.
The last to appear was two short legs.

The figure stood up shakily. It was covered by a brown uniform. Although
Jan did not know it, this was the uniform of a field marshal.

The pig like eyes in the fat face blinked at him stupidly, then turned
to survey the ruined city.

Jan recognized the newcomer for a man, though he had never seen one with
such a shape. Vaguely he wondered how such a man could catch wild
animals,--and if he couldn't, how he could eat enough to have grown up.

The man was even more of an enigma to Jan than the glistening square.
And he might be dangerous.

Jan had wandered far in his brief lifetime. Nowhere had he found more
than a handful of other wandering nomads, all like him in build; long of
limb, lithe and powerful of shoulder, able to run swiftly all d