stagger! He tried to regain his balance with a lurching stride forward ... and thus it was that the twin towers, pride of New Boston, were destroyed. Colossus' left foot descended crushingly upon the buildings ... and when it withdrew a moment later, a yawning hole gaped where had been city streets ... a hole partly filled with the crumbled masonry of the once-proud skyscrapers....

But Colossus staggered back one step ... and another ... and still another. Then one foot slipped into the air-and did not descend! After it went the other foot. And Colossus was off the ground! Off the ground and being pressed farther and farther out into space with every passing moment!

A great cheer ... a cheer which had in it half a sob ... rose from the safeway beside the gunnery-pit. Rocky Russell, glancing up at the hordes who had turned to behold this last-moment salvation, felt a moment of pain strike at his heart.

Saved! A world ... and all these ... saved. But the one most important person in this or any world....

And then he saw her! She had been fighting beside him in this very pit ... weary, disheveled, eyes haggard ... but still, to him, beautiful! And it could not have been mere coincidence that she saw him at the same moment. Their eyes met ... and no longer was there need for words. Both knew what the other was thinking ... both accepted the decisions of their hearts gladly. Without a word she turned and fled into the circle of his arms.

While up above, Bud Mulligan was signaling desperately, "Rocky! CX, Rocky Russell. Dammittahell, where are you? What do we do now? Our beams can't hold this mountain up here forever? What do you want us to—Great guns of grief!"

Colossus ... dwindled! Like a tinfoil effigy held over a flame, his tremendous bulk began to slough away. It did not fall off in chunks or clots. There was no destruction of his flesh, not horrid streams of blood flowing from open wounds. Colossus simply ... disappeared!

A mile-high roaring monster, pinned on invisible repulsor beams ... then a half-mile creature screaming in panic ... then a massive Thing a thousand ... five hundred ... fifty ... five ... two feet tall. Then a small, gray, shapeless wisp hanging like a shredded tatter in space ... a sudden, silent puff of flame ... then nothing....

So found its final resting place the Thing which came from afar. The Thing which, in accordance with the theories of a 

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