olded as though his
head were in a sack.

Long minutes of swaying, pitching motion followed as the hybrid sped
over the rocky ridges and gullies. It finally came to a halt, and for
another minute or so Dixon was held there motionless in mid-air, dimly
conscious of a subdued hum of activity all about him. Then he was
gently lowered to the ground again.

While one tentacle still held him securely, another tore away his hood
and tunic. Almost immediately the hood was replaced by one of the
protective white globe devices. Dixon blinked for a moment in
half-blinded bewilderment as he got his first glimpse of the
Earth-camp of the Centaurians.

* * * * *

The place, located on the smooth rock floor of a large natural basin,
seemed a veritable cauldron of seething colors which rippled and
blended in a dazzling maze of unearthly splendor. But Dixon forgot
everything else in that weird camp as his startled gaze fell upon the
creature standing directly in front of him.

He knew instinctively that the thing must be one of the Alpha
Centaurians, for in its alien grotesqueness the figure was utterly
dissimilar to anything ever seen upon Earth before.

Life upon the shattered planet of that far distant sun had apparently
sprung from sources both crustacean and reptilian. The Centaurian
stood barely five feet in height. Its bulky, box-like body was
completely covered with a chitinous armor that gleamed pale yellowish
green.

Two short powerful legs, scaled like those of a lizard, ended in feet
that resembled degenerated talons. Two pairs of slender arms emanated
from the creature's shoulders, with their many-jointed flexible length
ending in delicate three-pronged hands.

The scaly hairless head beneath the Centaurian's white globe device
bore a face that was blankly hideous. Two great lidless eyes, devoid
of both pupils and whites, stared unblinkingly at Dixon like twin
blobs of red-black jelly. A toothless loose-lipped mouth slavered
beneath.

Dixon averted his gaze from the horror of that fearful alien face, and
looked anxiously around for Ruth. He saw her almost at once, over at
his right. She was tethered by a light metallic rope that ran from her
waist to one of the metal beams supporting the great shimmering ball
of opalescent fire which formed the central control of the hybrids.

One of the white globe devices had been placed upon Ruth's head and
she was apparently unhurt, for she p