ecame a concrete fact, the big cadet had
been reluctant even to yell. Now, with pitch-black night closing around
him, he dared to call, hoping it would be heard and recognized by his
friends, or if not, considered the howl of a jungle beast by an enemy
patrol should one be near.

He stood with his back against the rough bark of a teakwood tree to
protect his rear and to face out toward the pitch-black night. More than
once the big cadet felt the sudden ripple of a crawling thing moving
around him, across his toes or down the tree trunk. There was a sudden
thrashing in the underbrush near by and he brought the shock rifle up
quickly, ears tuned for the growl, or scream, or hiss of an attacking
beast.

The luminous dial of his watch showed it to be three thirty in the
morning, two and a half hours to go before the sun would drive the
fearful darkness away. He had been calling every five minutes. And every
time he shouted, the movements in the darkness around him increased.

"Hal-loo-ooo!"

He waited, turning his head from one side to the other, intent on the
sounds that came from a distance; the answering call of the waddling
ground bird that had confused him at first until he recognized it; the
shrill scream of the tiny swamp hog; the distant chattering of the
monkeylike creatures in the treetops. But there was no sound from a
human throat.

Astro called again and again. The seconds dragged by into minutes, the
minutes into an hour, and then two hours, and finally, as every muscle
in his body ached from standing backed up to the tree all night and
holding his rifle on alert, the gray murky dawn broke over the jungle
and he began to see the green of the jungle around him. When the sun at
last broke over the Venusian horizon, the night's frost on the leaves
and bushes danced and glittered like jewels.

He washed his face in a near-by pool, careful not to drink any of the
water. He opened a can of synthetic food, and after eating his fill,
cleared away the brush down to the naked black soil and banking it high
on all sides he stretched full length on the ground. He dared not sleep.
Hungry animals were moving about freely now. A paralo-ray gun and the
rifle, both cocked and ready to fire, were held in his hands. He relaxed
as completely as he could, idly watching the mother of a brood of the
anthropoids scamper through the branches of the trees overhead, bringing
her squalling young their breakfast. An hour later, ref