The comet was the only thing in the whole sky. All the stars were smothered by the light of its copper-yellow flame, and, although the sun had set two hours ago, the Earth was lit as with the glow of a thunderous dawn.

In Mayfield, Ken Maddox walked slowly along Main Street, avoiding collisions with other people whose eyes were fixed on the object in the sky. Ken had spent scores of hours observing the comet carefully, both by naked eye and with his 12-inch reflecting telescope. Still he could not keep from watching it as he picked his way along the street toward the post office.

The comet had been approaching Earth for months, growing steadily to bigger proportions in the sky, but tonight was a very special night, and Mayfield was watching with increased awe and half-dread as were hundreds of thousands of other communities around the world.

Tonight, the Earth entered the comet’s tail, and during the coming winter would be swept continuously by its million-mile spread.

There was no visible change. The astronomers had cautioned that none was to be expected. The Earth had passed through the tails of comets before, although briefly, and none of the inhabitants had been physically aware of the event.

This time there was a difference. As intangible as a mere suspicion, it could yet be felt, and there was the expectancy of the unknown in the air.

Ken prided himself on a scientific attitude, but it was hard not to share the feelings of those around him that something momentous and mysterious was taking place this night. There would be no quick passage this time. Earth would lie within the tail for a period of over four months as they both made their way about the sun.

Such close-lying orbits had never occurred before in the known history of the world.

“It’s frightening, isn’t it?”

Ken was aware that he had stopped at the edge of a crowd in front of Billings Drugstore, and beside him Maria Larsen was staring intently upward as she spoke.

She was a small, blonde girl with intense blue eyes. Ken smiled confidently and looked down at her. “No,” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a kind of miracle that we should be alive when it happened. No human beings have ever seen such a sight before.”

Maria shivered faintly. “I wish I could feel that way. Do you think it will get any bigger?”

“Yes. It will not reach its closest approach for over three months, yet. Its approach is very slow so we won’t notice much change.”

“It is beautiful,” Maria agreed slowly, “but, still, it’s frightening. I’ll be glad when it’s gone.”

Ken laughed and tucked the girl’s arm in his. There was something so disturbingly serious about the Swedish girl, who was spending a year in Mayfield with her parents. Her father, Dr. Larsen, was a visiting professor of chemistry, engaged to teach this season at the State Agricultural College in Mayfield. Ken’s own father was head of the chemistry department there.

“Come down to the post office with me to get some stamps,” Ken said. “Then I’ll drive you home.”

“It’s closed. You can’t get any stamps tonight.”

“Maybe the boys in gray haven’t been too busy watching the comet to stock the stamp machine. Look out!” He pulled her back quickly as she stepped from the curb. A wheezy car moved past, its driver completely intent on his observation of the comet.

“Old Dad Martin’s been trying to wrap that thing around a pole for 25 years,” Ken said unhappily. “It looks like he’s going to make it tonight!”

Along the street, bystanders whistled at the aged driver, and pedestrians yelled at one another to get out of the way. The car’s progress broke, for a moment, the sense of ominous concern that spread over Main Street.

At the post office, Ken found Maria’s prediction was right. The stamp machine was empty.

“I have some at home,” the girl said. “You’re welcome to them.”

“I need a lot. Mother’s sending out some invitations.”

“I’m sure I have enough. Papa says I’m supporting the postal department with all the letters I write to everyone at home in Sweden.”

“All right, I’ll take you up on it. I’ll get skinned if I don’t get them. I was supposed to pick them up this afternoon and I forgot all about it.”

“I thought I learned good English in the schools in Sweden,” said Maria wistfully, “but I don’t seem to understand half what you say. This ’skinned’ what does that mean?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Ken laughed. “If you would teach me English the way you learned it, Miss Rymer would give me a lot better marks in her class.”

“Now I think you’re making fun of me,” said Maria.

“Not me. Believe me, I’m not! Hey, look what’s coming down the street! That’s old Granny Wicks. I thought she had died a long time ago.”

In front of the post office, an ancient white horse drew a light, ramshackle wagon to a halt. From the seat, a small, wizened, old woman looked at the crowd on the street. She dropped the reins in front of her. Her eyes, set deeply in her wrinkled face, were bright and sharp as a bird’s, and moved with the same snapping motions.

From both sides of the street the bystanders watched her. Granny Wicks was known to everyone in Mayfield. She was said to have been the first white child born in the valley, almost a hundred years ago. At one time, her horse and wagon were familiar, everyday sights on the streets, but she seldom came to town any more.

Many people, like Ken, had had the vague impression that she was dead.

She appeared lively enough now as she scrambled down from the wagon seat and moved across the sidewalk to the post office steps. She climbed these and stood in front of the doors. Curiously, the crowd watched her.

“Listen to me, you!” she exclaimed suddenly. Her voice was high and shrill, reminding Ken of an angry bird’s. Maria looked at him wonderingly, and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Don’t ask me what she’s up to. She’s pulled some corkers in her time.”

Granny Wicks looked over the gathering crowd. Then she pointed a bony arm at the glowing comet. “You know what it means,” she exclaimed shrilly. “You feel it in your bones, and your hearts quiver with fear. There’s death in the sky, and an omen to all the inhabitants of the Earth that destruction awaits men.”

She stopped and glared. The laughter that had first greeted her gave way to uneasiness as people glanced at their neighbors, then hastily at the comet, and back to Granny Wicks. Some began moving away in discomfort.

“You’re scared to listen, eh?” Granny shrilled at them. “You’re afraid to know what’s in store! Turn your backs then! Close your ears! You can’t change the signs in the heavens!”

A movement in the crowd caught Ken’s eye. He saw the stout figure of Sheriff Johnson moving toward the steps. The law officer stepped out in front and approached Granny Wicks.

“Come on now, Granny,” said Sheriff Johnson. “You wouldn’t want to scare folks out of a good night’s sleep, would you?”

“You let me alone, Sam Johnson! I’m saying what I have to say, and nobody’s going to stop me. Listen to me, all of you! There’s death in Mayfield in the winter that’s coming, and spring won’t see one man in ten left alive. Remember what I say. The stars have sent their messenger....”

“Okay, Granny, let’s go,” said the Sheriff. “You’ve said your piece and scared the daylights out of everybody. You’d better be getting on out to your place before it gets dark. The comet won’t light things up all night. How’s your supply of wood and coal for the winter, Granny? The boys been getting it in for you?”

“I got plenty, Sam Johnson. More’n I’ll need for this winter. Come spring, I won’t be around to be needing anything else from anybody. Neither will you!”

The Sheriff watched as the old woman climbed to her wagon seat again. Those standing nearby helped her gently. She took the reins and snapped them at the weary horse.

“Take care of yourself, Granny!” someone called.

Sheriff Johnson stood silently on the steps until the wagon passed out of sight around the corner of the block. Then he moved slowly by Ken and Maria. He smiled grimly at Ken.

“It’s bad enough to have that thing hanging up there in the sky without that kind of talk.” He glanced up for a moment. “It gives you the willies. Sometimes I wonder, myself, if Granny isn’t half-right.”

There was a stillness in the street as the people slowly dispersed ahead of the Sheriff. Voices were low, and the banter was gone. The yellow light from the sky cast weird, bobbing shadows on the pavement and against the buildings.

“Shall we go?” Maria asked. “This is giving me what do you say? the creeps.”

“It’s crazy!” Ken exclaimed with a burst of feeling. “It shows what ignorance of something new and strange can do. One feebleminded, old woman can infect a whole crowd with her crazy superstitions, just because they don’t know any more about this thing than she does!”

“It’s more than that,” said Maria quietly. “It’s the feeling that people have always had about the world they find themselves in. It doesn’t matter how much you know about the ocean and the winds and the tides, there is always a feeling of wonder and fear when you stand on the shore and watch enormous waves pounding the rocks.

“Even if you know what makes the thunder and the lightning, you can’t watch a great storm without feeling very small and puny.”

“Of course not,” Ken said. “Astronomers feel all that when they look a couple of billion light-years into space. Physicists know it when they discover a new particle of matter. But they don’t go around muttering about omens and signs. You can feel the strength of natural forces without being scared to death.

“Maybe that’s what marks the only real difference between witches and scientists, after all! The first scientist was the guy who saw fire come down from the sky and decided that was the answer to some of his problems. The witch doctor was too scared of both the problem and the answer to believe the problem could ever have a solution. So he manufactured delusions to make himself and others think the problem would just quietly go away. There are a lot of witch doctors still operating and they’re not all as easy to recognize as Granny Wicks!”

They reached Ken’s car, and he held the door open for Maria. As he climbed in his own side he said, “How about coming over to my place and having a look at the comet through my telescope? You’ll see something really awe-inspiring then.”

“I’d love to. Right now?”

“Sure.” Ken started the car and swung away from the curb, keeping a careful eye on the road, watching for any others like Dad Martin.

“Sometimes I think there will be a great many things I’ll miss when we go back to Sweden,” Maria said thoughtfully, as she settled back in the seat, enjoying the smooth, powerful ride of Ken’s souped-up car.

Ken shot a quick glance at her. He felt a sudden sense of loss, as if he had not realized before that their acquaintance was strictly temporary. “I guess a lot of people here will miss the Larsens, too,” he said quietly. “What will you miss most of all?”

“The bigness of everything,” said Maria. “The hundreds and hundreds of miles of open country. The schoolboys with cars to cover the distance. At home, a grown man is fortunate to have one. Papa had a very hard time owning one.”

“Why don’t you persuade him to stay here? Mayfield’s a darn good place to live.”

“I’ve tried already, but he says that when a man is grown he has too many things to hold him to the place he’s always known. He has promised, however, to let me come back if I want to, after I finish the university at home.”

“That would be nice.” Ken turned away, keeping his eyes intently on the road. There was nothing else he could say.

He drove slowly up the long grade of College Avenue. His family lived in an older house a block below the brow of College Hill. It gave a pleasant view of the entire expanse of the valley in which Mayfield was situated. The houses of the town ranged themselves in neat, orderly rows below, and spread out on the other side of the business section. In the distance, north and south, were the small farms where hay and dairy stock and truck crops had been raised since pioneer times.

“I’ll miss this, too,” said Maria. “It’s beautiful.”

Ken wasn’t listening to her, however. The car had begun to sputter painfully as it took the curve leading off the avenue to Linwood Street where Ken lived. He glanced at the heat indicator. The needle was almost at the boiling point.

“For Pete’s sake! The water must have leaked out of the radiator.”

Ken pulled the car to the curb in front of the house and got out, leaving the engine idling. He raised the hood and cautiously turned the radiator cap with his handkerchief. A cloud of steam shot out, but when he lifted the cap the water was not quite boiling, and there was plenty of it.

Maria came up beside him. “Is something wrong?”

“You’ve got me there. The radiator’s clean. The pump isn’t more than two months old. I checked the timing last Saturday. Something’s gone sour to make her heat up like that.”

From across the street, his neighbor, Mr. Wilkins, approached with a grin. “Looks like the same thing hit us both. Mine started boiling as I came up the hill tonight. It’s got me stumped.”

“The circulation must be clogged,” said Ken. “Either that or the timing has slipped off. That’s all it could be.”

“Those were my ideas, too. Both wrong in my case. Let me know if you get any other bright ones.” He moved off with a pleasant wave of his hand.

“It will cool,” said Ken to Maria. “By the time you’re ready to leave I’ll be able to drive you home.”

“I wouldn’t want you to damage your car. I can walk.”

“We’ll see.”

He led her around the house. In the center of the backyard loomed the high, round dome of his amateur observatory. It was Ken’s personal pride, as well as that of the members of the Mayfield High Science Club, who had helped build the shell and the mountings. The club used it every Thursday night when the seeing was good.

Ken had ground the precision mirror alone. He had ground his first one, a 4-inch glass, when he was a Boy Scout. Three years later he had tackled the tremendous job of producing a 12-inch one. Professor Douglas of the physics department at the college had pronounced it perfect.

Ken opened the door and switched on the light inside the dome. “Don’t mind the mess,” he said. “I’ve been taking photographs of the comet for the last month.”

To Maria, who was used to the clutter of a laboratory, there was no mess. She admired the beauty of the instrument Ken and his friends had built. “Our university telescope isn’t any better,” she said.

“You can’t tell by the plumbing,” Ken laughed. “Better take a look at the image before you pass judgment.”

Skilfully, he swung the long tube around to the direction of the comet. With the fine controls he centered the cross hairs of the eyepiece on the blazing object in the sky.

“It’s moving too fast to stay in range very long,” he said.

Maria stepped to the observer’s position. She gasped suddenly at the image of the fiery monster hovering in the sky. Viewing the comet along the axis of the tail, as the Earth lay at the edge of it, an observer’s vision was like that of a miniature, flaming sun with an offcenter halo of pulsing, golden light.

To Maria, the comet seemed like something living. Slow, almost imperceptible ripples in the glowing scarves of light made them sway as if before some mighty, cosmic wind in space.

“It’s beautiful,” Maria murmured, “but it’s terrible, too. No wonder the ancients believed comets brought evil and death upon the Earth. I could almost believe it, myself!”