of stone. Notwithstanding, there was no
visible mark upon his body; his flesh seemed unharmed.

Swiftly came the awful climax. The waving tentacles withdrew
themselves, the body of Bill Jones lost its rigidity, a heaving motion
from the center of the Thing propelled its cargo to the surface--and
Bill Jones stepped out!

Yes, he stepped out and stood for a moment staring straight ahead,
staring at nothing, glassily. Every person in the shivering, paralysed
group knew instinctively that something unthinkable had happened to
him. Something had transpired, something hitherto possible only in the
abysmal spaces of the Other Side of Things. Finally he turned and
faced the nameless object, raising his arm stiffly, automatically, as
in a military salute. Then he turned and walked jerkily, mindlessly,
round and round the globe like a wooden soldier marching. Meanwhile
the Thing lay quiescent--gorged!

* * * * *

Professor Ralston was the first to find his voice. In fact, Professor
Ralston was always finding his voice in the most unexpected places.
But this time it had caught a chill. It was trembling.

"Gentlemen," he began, looking down academically upon the motley crowd
as though doubting the aptitude of his salutation. "Fellow-citizens,"
he corrected, "the phenomenon we have just witnessed is, to the lay
mind, inexplicable. To me--and to my honorable colleagues (added as an
afterthought) it is quite clear. Quite clear, indeed. We have before
us a specimen, a perfect specimen, I might say, of a--of a--"

He stammered in the presence of the unnamable. His hesitancy caused
the rapt attention of the throng that was waiting breathlessly for an
explanation, to flicker back to the inexplicable. In the fraction of a
second that their gaze had been diverted from the Thing to the
professor, the object had shot forth another tentacle, gripping him
round the neck and choking off his sentence with a horrid rasp that
sounded like a death rattle.

Needless to say, the revolting process that had turned Bill Jones
from a human being into a mindless automaton was repeated with
Professor Ralston. It happened as before, too rapidly for
intervention, too suddenly for the minds of the onlookers to shake off
the paralysis of an unprecedented nightmare. But when the victim was
thrown to the surface, when he stepped out, drained of the grayish
smokelike essence, a tentacle still gripped his neck and another
res