d, arose a truly monstrous tumult. Every one of the
creatures below raised its voice in a horrible, bleating cry. The volume
of sound was numbing--was agonizing in sheer impact. There were
stirrings and clickings as of horns clashing against each other.

Another scream from Johnny Simms. He had moved. It appeared that he was
running. Cochrane saw more gun-flashes, there were more shots. He
clenched his hands and waited for the thunderous vibration that would be
all this multitude of animals pounding through the night in blind
stampede.

It did not come. There was only that bleating, horrible outcry as all
the beasts bellowed of alarm and created this noise to frighten their
assailants away.

Twice more there were shots in the night. Johnny Simms fired crazily and
screamed in hysterical panic. Each time the shots and screaming were
farther away.

There were no portable lights with which to make a search. It was
unthinkable to go blundering among the beasts in darkness.

There was nothing to do. Cochrane could only watch and listen helplessly
while the strong beast-smell rose to his nostrils, and the innumerable
noises of unseen uneasy creatures sounded in his ears.

Inside the ship Alicia wept hopelessly. Babs tried in vain to comfort
her.

CHAPTER TEN

The sun rose. Cochrane noted the time, it was fourteen hours since
sunset. The local day would be something more than an Earth-day in
length. The manner of sunrise was familiar. There was a pale gray light
in the sky. It strengthened. Then reddish colors appeared, and changed
to gold, and the unnamed stars winked out one after another. Presently
the nearer hillsides ceased to be black. There was light everywhere.

Alicia, white and haggard, waited to see what the light would show.

But there was heavy mist everywhere. The hill-crests were clear, and the
edge of the visible woodland, and the top half of the ship's shining
hull rose clear of curiously-tinted, slowly writhing fog. But everything
else seemed submerged in a sea of milk.

But the mist grew thinner as the sun shone on it. Its top writhed to
nothingness. All this was wholly commonplace. Even clouds in the sky
were of types well-known enough. Which was, when one thought about it,
inevitable. This was a Sol-type sun, of the same kind and color as the
star which warmed the planet Earth. It had planets, like the sun of
men's home world. There was a law--Bode's Law--which specified that
planets m