a good view, and it did look like there
might be a sizable hole under the stump. He studied it carefully with
the glasses. There was a smooth-beaten mound in front, and exposed roots
were worn slick.

As he got closer, he noticed an unpleasant smell, and near the mouth of
the den he got a sudden whiff that almost gagged him--a sour, acid,
carrion stink like a buzzard's nest. He moved back a little. The hole
was wide and fairly high, two or three feet, but too dark to see back
into. Still, he had a sense of something stirring there not too far
back.

Ed had considerable respect for caves and dens with unseen occupants--he
had once helped carry in the bodies of two men who had poked a stick
into a spring grizzly's den. At the same time, he wanted pretty badly to
know what was in there. He suspected there was a good deal more than
what he had already seen.

The bug gun loaded with tobacco juice was in his pack, and a flashlight,
a small light one designed for a lady's purse which he always carried
when away from camp. He got them out and leaned his rifle against a root
sticking out just to the left of the den. Taking the bug gun in his left
hand and the flashlight in his right, he stooped over to shine the light
in, keeping as well clear of the entrance as possible.

All in all, he must have got about a five-second look, which is a lot
longer than it sounds when things are happening.

His first impression was a jumble--eyes, scurrying movement, and bulk.
Then things started to shape up. About ten feet back from the entrance
was a huge, flattish, naked, scabrous bulk, pimpled with finger-sized
teats. Clustered around and behind this were a tangle of slinging units,
carrier units, observation units. Some had their mouths fixed to teats.

For a long second or two the scene stayed frozen.

Then the front edge of the bulk split and began to gape. Ed found
himself looking down a manhole-sized gullet into a shallow puddle of
slime with bits of bone sticking up here and there. Toward the near end
a soggy mass of fur that might have been the rabbit seemed to be visibly
melting down. At the same moment, the tangle of lesser monsters sorted
themselves out and a wave of stingers came boiling out at him.

Ed dropped the flashlight, gave two mighty pumps of the bug gun, and
jumped clear of the entrance. For a moment, the den mouth boiled with
stingers, hissing and bucking in agony. Ed sprayed them heavily again,
snatched up hi