ercoming and
devouring every living thing. Cold fear clutched at Van as he realized
the enormity of the calamity that had come to the earth.

Bart was skirting the edge of the clearing with the hatchet in his
hand, and Van tried to call out to him, to warn him. But his voice
caught in his throat, and instead he ran to his assistance, circling
the spreading menace to get around behind where Kelly was still
shouting. Damn Kelly anyway! This never would have happened if he
hadn't come on the scene!

Kelly was in the woods, wedged into the crotch of a tree and striking
wildly at the clutching tendrils with his clubbed pistol. They mashed
easily and dripping red, but were not to be deterred from their
ghastly purpose. Kelly's time would have indeed been short had not his
erstwhile victims come to the rescue. One of the thickest of the
twining things encircled his body and had him pinned to the tree. His
breath was coming in gasps as its tightening coils increased their
pressure. His coarse features were livid and his eyes bulged from
their sockets.

Bart hacked and hacked at the rubbery growth until he had him free;
jerked him from his perch, blubbering and whining like a schoolboy.
His shirt had been torn from his breast and they saw a great red welt
where the blood had been drawn through the pores by those terrible
suckers.

"Look out, Bart!" Van shouted.

* * * * *

Another of the creeping things had come through the underbrush and was
wrapping its coils around Bart's ankle. Another and another wriggled
through, and soon they were battling for their own freedom. Kelly
staggered off into the woods and went crashing down the hill, leaving
them to take care of themselves as best they might.

The stench of the viscous liquid that oozed from the injured tendrils
was nauseous; it had something of a soporific effect; and the two
friends found themselves fighting the terror in a growing mist of red
that blinded and confused them. Then, miraculously, they were free and
Van assisted Bart as they ran through the forest. When they reached
the road, weak and out of breath, they were just in time to see
Kelly's roadster vanish around the bend.

"Yeah, he'd give back the diamonds--the swine!" Van muttered
vindictively. Then, shrugging his shoulders, "Well, they won't be much
good to him, anyway. Wouldn't be any good to us either, as far as that
goes."

"What do you mean? Aren't they real?" Bar