was suddenly
shattered by a strange sound from the shrubbery-covered crest just
above him. It was a musical, tinkling crash, oddly suggestive of a
handful of thin glass plates shattering upon a stone floor. A second
later there came the agonized scream of some creature in its death
throes.

The tinkling, crashing sound promptly swelled to a steady pulsing
song like that of a brittle river of crystalline glass surging and
breaking over granite boulders. There was an eery beauty in that
tinkling burst of melody, yet with the beauty there was an
intangible suggestion of horror that made Powell's flesh creep.

The crystalline song swelled to a crescendo climax. Then there came
another sound, a single resonant note like that given when a string
of a bass viol is violently plucked--and the tinkling melody
abruptly died. Immediately following the resonant twang some object
was ejected from the midst of the thicket on the dune's crest, and
came rolling and bounding down the gentle slope toward Powell.

It finally came to rest against the base of a bush almost at his
feet. He whistled softly in surprise as he saw the nature of the
thing. It was another of the yard-long egg-shaped crystals of
translucent amber like the one that had been materialized in
Benjamin Marlowe's laboratory. Imprisoned in the clear depths of
this amber egg was the sparkling, diamond-encrusted skeleton of what
had apparently been a small quadruped about the size of a fox.

Powell's eyes narrowed in speculation as he realized that he had
before him the first slight clue as to what might have happened to
Joan. Her Silver Belt had been enclosed in one of those amber,
crystalline eggs. Apparently her capture had been in some way
connected with that sinister, unseen Tinkling Death.

* * * * *

Powell began cautiously working his way up the slope of the dune,
with an automatic pistol ready for use in his right hand. Silence
reigned unbroken now in the thicket on the crest, but with each
upward step that he took there came with constantly increasing force
a feeling of some vast, alien intelligence lurking up there,
watching and waiting.

Nearer and nearer the crest he worked his wary way, until he was so
close that he fancied he could see the vague outline of some
monstrous silvery bulk looming there in the heart of the red
thicket. He took another cautious step forward--and then his careful
stalking was sharply interrupte