to the semblance of the mounds
that lay behind us--and already beginning to take on their gleam of
ancient viridescence!

The Irishman was gripping my arm fiercely; the pain brought me back to
my senses.

"Olaf's right," he gasped. "This _is_ hell! I'm sick." And he was,
frankly and without restraint. Lugur and his others awakened from
their nightmare; piled into the _coria_, wheeled, raced away.

"On!" said Rador thickly. "Two perils have we passed--the Silent Ones
watch over us!"

Soon we were again among the familiar and so unfamiliar moss giants.
I knew what I had seen and this time Larry could not call
me--superstitious. In the jungles of Borneo I had examined that other
swiftly developing fungus which wreaks the vengeance of some of the
hill tribes upon those who steal their women; gripping with its
microscopic hooks into the flesh; sending quick, tiny rootlets through
the skin down into the capillaries, sucking life and thriving and
never to be torn away until the living thing it clings to has been
sapped dry. Here was but another of the species in which the
development's rate was incredibly accelerated. Some of this I tried to
explain to O'Keefe as we sped along, reassuring him.

"But they turned to moss before our eyes!" he said.

Again I explained, patiently. But he seemed to derive no comfort at
all from my assurances that the phenomena were entirely natural and,
aside from their more terrifying aspect, of peculiar interest to the
botanist.

"I know," was all he would say. "But suppose one of those things had
burst while we were going through--God!"

I was wondering how I could with comparative safety study the fungus
when Rador stopped; in front of us was again the road ribbon.

"Now is all danger passed," he said. "The way lies open and Lugur has
fled--"

There was a flash from the road. It passed me like a little lariat of
light. It struck Larry squarely between the eyes, spread over his face
and drew itself within!

"Down!" cried Rador, and hurled me to the ground. My head struck
sharply; I felt myself grow faint; Olaf fell beside me; I saw the
green dwarf draw down the O'Keefe; he collapsed limply, face still,
eyes staring. A shout--and from the roadway poured a host of Lugur's
men; I could hear Lugur bellowing.

There came a rush of little feet; soft, fragrant draperies brushed my
face; dimly I watched Lakla bend over the Irishman.

She straightened--her arms swept out and the w