The Star Men

It was a silly season, late August 1956, in staid, prosaic Blairton, and Tom Gerard, reporter for the Blairton Clarion, was bored and disgusted. Something was needed, he decided, to stir up the lethargy. What was it that the joker had said last night on the floor of the Republican convention—something about aliens amongst us? Tom Gerard's mind started revolving. He was a long-time science fiction reader and fan. And right here in Blairton, there was an unsolved mystery—that is, it could be considered a mystery if you wanted to look at it in that light. Ten years ago, a meteor had come down on Bald Knob Mountain, destroying a stand of timber belonging to George Mayfield, realtor. Mayfield was the sort who never forgot an injury, and he was still broiling within over what he called arson—although the meteor had been seen, and certainly accounted for the fire. The meteor itself had never been found, not so much as the slightest trace of it. Suppose...?