skies; the window of the
room where the fountain sprayed ceaselessly was showing the first hint
of gold in the eastern sky. Above was the utter darkness of the
cloud-wrapped night as the two men swung noiselessly out into the
grotesque branches of a tree to make their way into the gloom below.
There, under the cover of great leaves, they crouched in silence, while
the darkness about them faded and a sound of subdued whistling noises
came to them from the night.

A wheel creaked, and in the dim light two figures appeared tugging at a
cart upon which was a cage of woven wire. Beyond them, against the
darker background of denser growth, tentacles coiled and twisted above
the row of guardian plants that surrounded the house.

One of the ghostly forms reached within the cage and brought forth a
struggling object that whimpered in fear. The low whine came distinctly
to the hidden men. They saw a vague black thing tossed through the air
and toward the deadly plants; they heard the swishing of pliant
tentacles and the yelping cry of a frightened animal. And the cry rose
to a shriek that ended with the gulping splash of thick liquid.

The giant pod next in line was open--they could see it dimly--and its
tentacles were writhing convulsively, hungrily, across the ground.
Another animal was taken from the cage and thrown to the waiting,
serpent forms that closed about and whirled it high in air. Another--and
another! The yelps of terror grew faint in the distance as the monsters
passed on in their gruesome work. And the two men, palpitant with
memories of their own experience, were limp and sick with horror.

* * * * *

In the growing light they saw more plainly the fleshy, pliant arms that
whipped through the air or felt searchingly along the ground. No hope
there for bird or beast that passed by in the night; nor for men, as
they knew too well. But now, as the golden light increased, the arms
drew back to form again the tight-wound coils that flattened themselves
beside the monstrous pods whose lips were closing. Locked within them
were the pools of liquid that could dissolve a living body into food for
these vampires of the vegetable world.

"Damnable!" breathed Sykes in a savage whisper. "Utterly damnable! And
this world is peopled with such monsters!"

The last deadly arm was tightly coiled when the men stole off through
the lush growth that reached even above their heads. McGuire remembe