fiercely,
knees melting, hands--

Hands clutching an elephant gun. The thought was like a director's
command. With calm efficiency, with all the precision of an actor
playing a scene rehearsed a thousand times, the gun leaped to his
shoulder, and now its own roar thundered out a challenge to the roaring
of the wild beasts, shouted at them in its own accents of barking
thunder.

The shrill screaming continued long after the echoes of the gun's speech
had died away. Across the platform from him were two great bodies, the
bodies of lions, and yet curiously unlike the beasts in some ways, now
that they were dead and dissolving as if corroded by some invisible
acid.

Carol's hand was on his arm, Carol's thin and breathless voice shook as
she said, "A drink--all the drinks you want."

"One will do. And you."

"And me. I guess you're kind of--kind of useful after all."

[Transcriber's Note:

This e-text was produced from Space Science Fiction February 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
on this publication was renewed.]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hunters, by William Morrison

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