only in disaster--if it has not
already done so. What a fool I was to bring these two!" And: "If I
want to risk my own life," he told himself bitterly, "that's my own
affair. But for Chet, and Diane, with their lives ahead of them--" His
determination was quickly reached.

He would go back. Somehow, some way, he would get them to the ship.
They would return to Earth. And then.... His plans were vague. But he
knew he could interest capital; he knew that this new world, that was
one great mine of raw metals, would not go long unworked. The metallic
colorations in rock walls and mountains had fairly shouted of rich
ores and untold wealth.

Yes, they would go back, but he would return. He would put from his
mind all thought of this girl; he would forget forever those nebulous
plans that had filled him with hope for a happiness beyond all hoping.
And he would come back here prepared for conquest.

He put aside all speculation as to what other horrible forms of life
the little world might hold: he would be prepared to deal with them.
But he still wondered if there were people. He had hoped to find some
human life.

And this hope, too, left him; his sense of this globe as an
undeveloped world was strong upon him. The monsters; the tropical,
terrible vegetation; the very air itself--all breathed of a world that
was young. There had not been time for the long periods of evolution
through which humanity came.

He tried to tell himself of the wealth that would be his; tried to
feel the excitement that should follow upon such plans. But he could
only feel a sense of loss, of something precious that was gone.
Diane--named for the moon: she seemed more precious now to the lonely
man than all else on moon or Earth. She could never be his; she never
had been. It was Chet upon whom the gods and Diane had smiled. And
Chet deserved it.

Only in this last conviction did he find some measure of consolation
during the long night.

* * * * *

"We will rip the big web out with detonite," Harkness told the others
when morning came. "But I want to get the spider, too."

A touch upon the web with a stick brought an instant response. Again
they saw in all its repulsiveness the thing that seemed a creature of
some horrible dream. The eyes glared, while hairy feelers seized the
web and shook it in furious rage. Harkness, fearing another discharge
of the nauseating, viscous liquid, withdrew with the others