d.

Without a second's warning there came the roaring rush of great
wings beating the air just above him. Powell tried to dive for
cover, but he was too late. A slender snaky tentacle came lashing
down and struck his shoulder with a force that sent him sprawling
forward upon his face. Before he could rise, two of the tentacles
twined around him, and he was jerked up into the air like a
wood-grub captured by a husky robin.

Again the great wings above him threshed the air in tremendous
power, as the unseen monster started away with its prey. Then the
tentacles from which he was dangling shifted their grip slightly,
turning Powell's body in the air so that he could look up and get
his first glimpse of the thing that had captured him. He shuddered
at what he saw. The creature was a hideous combination of octopus
and giant bat.

Naked wings of membrane spanned twenty feet from tip to tip. There
was a pursy sac-like body, ending in a head with staring, lidless
eyes and a great black beak that looked strong enough to shear sheet
steel. From the body descended half a dozen long writhing tentacles.

* * * * *

Powell's one hundred and eighty pounds made a weight that was
apparently a burden for even this flying monster. It flew jerkily
along, scarcely a dozen feet from the ground, and there was
laborious effort obvious in every movement of its flapping wings.
Powell decided to make a prompt break for escape before the
octopus-bat succeeded in fighting its way any higher. His left arm
was still pinioned to his body by one of the constricting tentacles,
but his right hand, with the automatic in it, was free.

He swung the weapon's muzzle into line with the hideous face above
him, then sent a stream of lead crashing upward into the creature's
head. The bullet struck squarely home. The tentacles tightened
convulsively with a force that almost cracked Powell's ribs. Then in
another paroxysm of agony the tentacles flung him free.

The impetus of his fall sent him rolling for a dozen feet. Unhurt,
save for minor scratches and bruises, he scrambled to his feet just
in time to see the mortally wounded octopus-bat come crashing down
in the red vegetation some thirty yards away. For a few minutes
there was audible a convulsive threshing; and then there was
silence.

Powell refilled the automatic's clip, then looked about, trying to
regain his bearings. He wanted to return to the thicket of the
Ti