d-cloth of his
tunic. That could only mean one thing--the menace of those green moon
rays must in some unknown way be radioactive. If Dixon could only get
the lead-cloth hood over his own head again he also might cheat the
green doom.

He fumbled at the garment with fingers that seemed as stiff as wooden
blocks. There was a long moment of agony when he feared that his
effort had come too late. Then the hood finally slipped over his head
just as utter oblivion claimed him.

* * * * *

Dixon came abruptly back to life with the dimly remembered echo of a
woman's scream still ringing in his ears. For a moment he thought that
he was awakening on his cot back in the laboratory after an unusually
vivid and weird nightmare. Then the garish green moonlight around him
brought swift realization that the incredible happenings of the night
were grim reality.

The clouds were gone from the moon, leaving his surroundings again
clearly outlined in the flood of green light. Dixon lifted his head
and cautiously searched the scene, but he could see no trace of the
great spider-form that had pursued him.

Wondering curiously why the creature had abandoned the chase at the
moment when victory was within its grasp, Dixon rose lithely to his
feet. The protecting hood had brought a quick and complete recovery
from the devastating effects of the green moon's rays. His muscles
were again supple, and his brain once more functioned with clearness.

Then abruptly Dixon's blood froze as the sound of a woman's scream
came again. The cry was that of a woman in the last extremity of
terror, and Dixon knew with a terrible certainty that that woman was
Ruth Lawton!

He raced toward the small ridge of rocks from behind which the sound
had apparently come. A moment later he reached the scene, and stopped
horror-stricken.

Three figures were there in a small rock-walled clearing. One was old
Emil Crawford, sprawled unconscious on his side, the soft glow of a
small white globe in a strange head-piece atop his gray hair shining
eerily in the green moonlight.

Near Crawford's body loomed the giant spider-creature, and clutched
firmly in the great claspers just under the monster's terrible fanged
mouth was the slender body of Ruth Lawton. Merciful unconsciousness
had apparently overwhelmed the girl now, for she lay supinely in the
dread embrace, with eyes closed and lips silent.

* * * *