Hardly aware he
is going to do it, he strikes a match and touches it to the master fuse. The fuse
spits a hot line of red sparks that singe the fine hair on the back of his hand,
crisping them. The werewolf, momentarily offbalance, draws backwards, uttering a
questioning grunt that, like his hands, is nearly human. Marty throws the packet of
firecrackers in its face.

They go off in a banging, flashing train of light and sound The beast utters a
screech-roar of pain and rage; it staggers backwards, clawing at the explosions
that tattoo grains of fire and burning gunpowder into its face. Marty sees one of
its lamplike green eyes whiff out as four crackers go off at once with a terrific
thundering KA-POW! at the side of its muzzle. Now its screams are pure agony. It
claws at its face, bellowing, and as the first lights go on in the Coslaw house it
turns and bounds back down the lawn toward the woods, leaving behind it only a
smell of singed fur and the first frightened and bewildered cries from the house.

July