And another thing, this paleness of his. He looked at his hands and realized with growing terror that a pale man also was non-existent in this world. They would suspect his paleness. That was why the first attendant had asked, "Are you one of those men newly returned from Mars?" Here, now, this new Attendant was clean and bright as a copper penny, his cheeks red with health and energy. Lantry hid his pale hands in his pockets. But he was fully aware of the searching the Attendant did on his face. "I mean to say," said Lantry. "I didn't _want_ to sleep. I wanted to think." "Was there a service held here a moment ago?" asked the Attendant, looking about. "I don't know, I just came in." "I thought I heard the fire lock open and shut." "I don't know," said Lantry. The man pressed a wall button. "Anderson?" A voice replied. "Yes." "Locate Saul for me, will you?" "I'll ring the corridors." A pause. "Can't find him." "Thanks." The Attendant was puzzled. He was beginning to make little sniffing motions with his nose. "Do you--_smell_ anything?" Lantry sniffed. "No. Why?" "I _smell_ something." Lantry took hold of the knife in his pocket. He waited. "I remember once when I was a kid," said the man. "And we found a cow lying dead in the field. It had been there two days in the hot sun. That's what this smell is. I wonder what it's from?" "Oh, I know what it is," said Lantry quietly. He held out his hand. "Here." "What?" "Me, of course." "You?" "Dead several hundred years." "You're an odd joker." The Attendant was puzzled. "Very." Lantry took out the knife. "Do you know what this is?" "A knife." "Do you ever use knives on people any more?" "How do you mean?" "I mean--killing them, with knives or guns or poison?" "You _are_ an odd joker!" The man giggled awkwardly. "I'm going to kill you," said Lantry. "Nobody kills anybody," said the man. "Not any more they don't. But they used to, in the old days." "I know they did." "This will be the first murder in three hundred years. I just killed your friend. I just shoved him into the fire lock." That remark had the desired effect. It numbed the man so completely, it shocked him so thoroughly with its illogical aspects that Lantry had time to walk forward. He put the knife against the man's chest. "I'm going to kill you." "That's silly," said the man, numbly. "People don't do that." "Like this," said Lantry. "You see?" The knife slid into the chest. The man stared at it for a moment. Lantry caught the falling body. III The Salem flue exploded at six that morning. The great fire chimney shattered into ten thousand parts and flung itself into the earth and into the sky and into the houses of the sleeping people. There was fire and sound, more fire than autumn made burning in the hills.