
Part 1
A young man with extraordinary, mysterious abilities is found wandering the desolate hills of White Bear Lake, his ragged clothes and fragile demeanor belying a power that the world fears. When Sheriff Derwin and his deputies corner him, they quickly realize the boy is not an ordinary drifter—he can kill with a mere touch, a fact that turns a routine arrest into a tense standoff. The sheriff, wary yet oddly compassionate, places the boy in a jail cell, offering food and a chance to communicate, while the community watches with a mixture of dread and curiosity.
Inside the cold cell, the boy’s primal instincts surface as he devours his meal with animalistic hunger, hinting at a struggle between his humanity and the raw force within him. As Derwin tries to bridge the gap, the uneasy silence raises questions: can the sheriff understand what the boy needs, and will the town’s fear drive them to protect or destroy what they cannot comprehend?
Language
en
Duration
~27 minutes (26K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
New York, NY: Headline Publications, Inc., 1956.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Apr 19, 2024
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1911–1997
A mid-century science fiction writer with a gift for sharp ideas and imaginative alien encounters, Charles V. De Vet created more than fifty short stories for the era’s leading magazines. His best-known novel, Cosmic Checkmate, was co-written with Katherine MacLean and earned a 1959 Hugo Award nomination.
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