ped suddenly. He had reached the level top of the lava flow. Here
was where they had stood when the beasts attacked; where Harkness had
dropped the boxes of ammunition and the pistol--and except for a few
scattered bodies of unbelievable reptiles and for a stain of blood where
his own wound had bled, there was nothing to show where they had been.

"He got 'em!" Chet exclaimed. "That son-of-a-gun Schwartzmann got the
gun and shells. I saw him scrambling around on the rock. I thought he
was just scared to death; but no, he wasn't too frightened to grab the
gun and the ammunition while one of his own men was being killed. And
that's not so good, either!"

A dozen paces beyond was a huddle of clothing that stirred idly in the
breeze. "The poor devil!" exclaimed Chet, and moved over beside the body
of the man who had gone down under the red swarm's attack.

It lay face down. Chet stooped to turn the body over, though he knew
there was no hope of life. He stopped with a gasp of dismay.

Two eyes still stared in horror from a face that was colorless--a
drained, ghastly white face! No tint remained to show that this ever had
been a living man. More dreadful than the waxen pallor of death, here
was a bleached, bloodless flesh that told of the nameless horror that
had overwhelmed this man, beaten him down and drained him of every drop
of blood.

"Vampires!" Chet heard Harkness saying in a horrified whisper. "Those
beaks that were like tubes! And they--they--" He stopped as if in fear
of the words that would tell what they themselves had escaped.

Chet turned the body to its former position; that dreadful face beneath
a pitiless sun was a sight no other eyes should see. "Let's go on to the
ship," he said. "We'll get some ammunition, go back and get Diane--"

* * * * *

He did not finish the thought. Before him he saw the lifeless body
moving; it rolled and shuddered as if life had returned to this thing
where no life should be. Chet raised one hand in an unconscious gesture
as if to ward off some new horror that the body might disclose. It was a
moment before he realized that the rock was shaking beneath his feet,
that he was dizzy and that from no great distance a rumbling growl was
sounding in his ears.

The moving body had shaken Chet's mental poise as had the earthquake his
physical equilibrium. Harkness had not seen it; he was looking off
across the level plateau.

"Look!" he exclaime