The world wakes to nightmare as one man crosses forbidden barriers in search for the secret of life!
The world around Graxton was a world of woods and lakes, brooding mountains, and quiet valleys, a country apart from the great urban centers, the bustling pace of metropolitan life that seemed to rule so much of modern life. Time stood still in Graxton; people and events were little changed over the last century... until Paul Vandrak came home.
Vandrak brought with him a secret so terrible that he had walked out on a promising career as a government scientist... so terrible that it meant death to those he loved most—and who loved him. It was a secret so terrible that the fate of the world centered on this one small town in the north woods—on this one harried, frightened man—and on the girl who loved him and thought she could save him from what he had done to himself.
Paul Vandrak came home ... and the quiet world of Graxton, unchanged for a hundred years, came to a screaming end!

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First published in Fantastic Adventures, September 1941
Cover art by David Davies