nder a fusillade of bullets
the monster wilted, giving expression to a weird, shrill cry. Zoro
dangled head downwards. To drop from such a height on his skull would
probably be fatal.

But the monster did not drop him. Instead, in its death agony, its
grip tightened, and the Americans witnessed an incredible sight.
Before their very eyes the monster began rapidly to shrink. Its
tenuous body telescoped together, becoming thinner and thinner in the
process, until on the floor there lay the lifeless body of a
snake-like creature not more than six inches in length!

"Good Lord!" breathed Miles.

Zoro who had escaped unscathed from his perilous plight, regarded it
with his peculiarly colored eyes.

* * * * *

"It is a tah-a-la," he said, "and must have entered the room at the
same time you did. The green men often capture and train them for
hunting. When about to seize their prey their bodies have the power of
enormously stretching." Outwardly he seemed unaffected by the danger
safely passed and waved away several of his fellows who had wheeled to
the spot attracted by the noise of the pistols. The Americans were
more shaken. "Perhaps," said Ward, "there is danger of--"

"None," replied Zoro. "I know there are no other tah-a-las inside
these rooms, since it is the nature of these beasts to rush to each
other's aid when they scream. And as for outside attacks, the
laboratories are insulated against any the insurgent workers can make.
Their weapons are poor--the green men use but clubs. No, it is not
their attacks we fear but their refusal to furnish us with supplies.
They worshipped us as gods, and the giving of supplies was long a
religious rite. But now they doubt our divinity, and, since they no
longer listen to or obey our decrees, we have no means of punishing
them. Spiro is responsible for this."

"Spiro?" questioned the two men.

"He whom we raised to the dignity of godhead on the accidental death
of Bah-koo, causing a deep sleep to fall upon him in the temple and
grafting his head upon the mechanical body left by the latter. Twice
before we had done this with citizens of Apex, and how were we to know
that Spiro would resent it? True, he was in love with Ah-eeda, but the
physical passions of men die with the organisms that give them birth.
For three years he dwelt with us in the laboratories, learning the
wisdom of the Heads, and then,"--Zoro's face became forbidding--"he
denou