d marvelous floral display, Nadia breathed deeply
of the inviting fragrance--and collapsed senseless upon the ground.
Thereupon the weird plant moved over toward her, and the thick leaves
began to enfold her knees. This carnivorous thing, however, did not like
the heavy cloth of her suit and turned to the hexaped. It thrust several
of its leaves into the wounds upon the carcass and fed, while two other
leaves rasped together, sending out a piercing call.

In answer to the sound the underbrush crackled, and through it and upon
the scene there crashed a vegetable-animal nightmare--the parent of the
relatively tiny thing whose perfume had disabled the girl.

Its huge and gorgeous blossom was supported by a long, flexible,
writhing stem, and its base was composed of many and highly specialized
leaves. There were saws and spears and mighty, but sinuous tendrils;
there were slender shoots which seemed to possess some sense of
perception; there was the massive tractor base composed of extensible
leaves which by their contraction and expansion propelled the mass along
the ground. Parent and child fell upon the hexaped and soon bones and
hair were all that remained The slender shoots then wandered about the
unconscious girl in her strange covering, and as a couple of powerful
tendrils coiled about her and raised her into the air over the monstrous
base of the thing, its rudimentary brain could almost be perceived
working as it sluggishly realized that, now full fed, it should carry
this other victim along, to feed its other offspring when they should
return to its side.

* * * * *

Barely outside the door of the "Forlorn Hope" Stevens whirled about
with a bitter imprecation. He had already lost time needlessly--with a
lookout plate he could cover more ground in ten minutes than he could
cover afoot in a week. He flipped on the power and shot the violet beam
out over the plateau to the district where he knew Nadia was wont to
hunt. Not finding her there, he swung the beam in an ever widening
circle around that district. Finally he saw a few freshly broken twigs,
and scanned the scene with care. He soon found the trail of fresh
blood which marked the path of the flight of the hexaped, and with the
peculiar maneuverability of the device he was using, it was not long
until he was studying the scene where the encounter had taken place.
He gasped when he saw the bones and perceived three of Nadia's ar