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Rh ing shiveringly, then entered. He heard the rasp of a match, a clang of stove-lids, and then voices, muffled, within. In a few minutes the day guards would be dressed. The mackerel sky above settled to a cold drab; 9009 stepped out silently into the alley-way.

He stood there a moment, erect and motionless; then his rifle leaped to his shoulder, bellowed, and the blue-clad guard upon the wall toppled over, hung on the edge an instant, and slid along the perpendicular stones to a huddle in the yard.

And 9009 stepped out full into the yard, red-striped, gaunt, and terrible. He walked slowly, on the balls of his feet, his body inclined forward from the waist, his chin, pivoting upon his neck, thrusting itself out to the right, to the left, as he strode; and in his right hand his rifle, held loosely, like a hunter’s.

The reverberation of the shot was still bounding from building to building, mingled with the echo of a shout which had followed. A shrill whistling now rose, strident, into the air. A Rh