Not a Creature Was Stirring
By DEAN EVANS
Illustrated by DAVID STONE
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Science Fiction December 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
This could be a Christmas story. If it is, it
shows one way peace on Earth can be attained!
He was a tall, hard man with skin the color of very old iodine. When he climbed up out of the vertical shaft of his small gold mine, The Lousy Disappointment, he could have been taken for an Indian, he was that dark. Except, of course, that Indians didn't exist any more in 1982. His name was Tom Gannett and he was about forty years old and he didn't realize his own uniqueness.
When he made it to his feet, the first thing he did was to squint up at the sun. The second was to sneeze, and the third to blow his nose.