Single martian destroys town

Very gently, when my mind was assured again, did they break to me what they had learned of the fate of Leather- head. Two days after I was imprisoned it had been destroyed, with every soul in it, by a Martian. He had swept it out of existence, as it seemed, without any provocation, as a boy might crush an ant hill, in the mere wantonness of power.

Chapter 26