The Hanging Stranger Read online

said abruptly.

  Loyce sagged. "Thank God."

  "So you got away." The Commissioner shook his head. "You were down inyour cellar instead of at work. A freak chance. One in a million."

  Loyce sipped some of the black coffee they had brought him. "I have atheory," he murmured.

  "What is it?"

  "About them. Who they are. They take over one area at a time. Startingat the top--the highest level of authority. Working down from there in awidening circle. When they're firmly in control they go on to the nexttown. They spread, slowly, very gradually. I think it's been going onfor a long time."

  "A long time?"

  "Thousands of years. I don't think it's new."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "When I was a kid.... A picture they showed us in Bible League. Areligious picture--an old print. The enemy gods, defeated by Jehovah.Moloch, Beelzebub, Moab, Baalin, Ashtaroth--"

  "So?"

  "They were all represented by figures." Loyce looked up at theCommissioner. "Beelzebub was represented as--a giant fly."

  The Commissioner grunted. "An old struggle."

  "They've been defeated. The Bible is an account of their defeats. Theymake gains--but finally they're defeated."

  "Why defeated?"

  "They can't get everyone. They didn't get me. And they never got theHebrews. The Hebrews carried the message to the whole world. Therealization of the danger. The two men on the bus. I think theyunderstood. Had escaped, like I did." He clenched his fists. "I killedone of them. I made a mistake. I was afraid to take a chance."

  The Commissioner nodded. "Yes, they undoubtedly had escaped, as you did.Freak accidents. But the rest of the town was firmly in control." Heturned from the window. "Well, Mr. Loyce. You seem to have figuredeverything out."

  "Not everything. The hanging man. The dead man hanging from thelamppost. I don't understand that. _Why?_ Why did they deliberately hanghim there?"

  "That would seem simple." The Commissioner smiled faintly. "_Bait._"

  Loyce stiffened. His heart stopped beating. "Bait? What do you mean?"

  "To draw you out. Make you declare yourself. So they'd know who wasunder control--and who had escaped."

  Loyce recoiled with horror. "Then they _expected_ failures! Theyanticipated--" He broke off. "They were ready with a trap."

  "And you showed yourself. You reacted. You made yourself known." TheCommissioner abruptly moved toward the door. "Come along, Loyce. There'sa lot to do. We must get moving. There's no time to waste."

  Loyce started slowly to his feet, numbed. "And the man. _Who was theman?_ I never saw him before. He wasn't a local man. He was a stranger.All muddy and dirty, his face cut, slashed--"

  There was a strange look on the Commissioner's face as he answered."Maybe," he said softly, "you'll understand that, too. Come along withme, Mr. Loyce." He held the door open, his eyes gleaming. Loyce caught aglimpse of the street in front of the police station. Policemen, aplatform of some sort. A telephone pole--and a rope! "Right this way,"the Commissioner said, smiling coldly.

  * * * * *

  As the sun set, the vice-president of the Oak Grove Merchants' Bank cameup out of the vault, threw the heavy time locks, put on his hat andcoat, and hurried outside onto the sidewalk. Only a few people werethere, hurrying home to dinner.

  "Good night," the guard said, locking the door after him.

  "Good night," Clarence Mason murmured. He started along the streettoward his car. He was tired. He had been working all day down in thevault, examining the lay-out of the safety deposit boxes to see if therewas room for another tier. He was glad to be finished.

  At the corner he halted. The street lights had not yet come on. Thestreet was dim. Everything was vague. He looked around--and froze.

  From the telephone pole in front of the police station, something largeand shapeless hung. It moved a little with the wind.

  What the hell was it?

  Mason approached it warily. He wanted to get home. He was tired andhungry. He thought of his wife, his kids, a hot meal on the dinnertable. But there was something about the dark bundle, something ominousand ugly. The light was bad; he couldn't tell what it was. Yet it drewhim on, made him move closer for a better look. The shapeless thing madehim uneasy. He was frightened by it. Frightened--and fascinated.

  And the strange part was that nobody else seemed to notice it.