f the
afternoon, something else queer happened. The pyramids ended."

"Ended!"

"Yeah; the queer part was that the last one--and now they were
ten-footers--was capped! See? Whatever built it was still inside; we'd
trailed 'em from their half-million-year-old origin to the present.

"Tweel and I noticed it about the same time. I yanked out my automatic
(I had a clip of Boland explosive bullets in it) and Tweel, quick as a
sleight-of-hand trick, snapped a queer little glass revolver out of his
bag. It was much like our weapons, except that the grip was larger to
accommodate his four-taloned hand. And we held our weapons ready while
we sneaked up along the lines of empty pyramids.

"Tweel saw the movement first. The top tiers of bricks were heaving,
shaking, and suddenly slid down the sides with a thin crash. And
then--something--something was coming out!

"A long, silvery-grey arm appeared, dragging after it an armored body.
Armored, I mean, with scales, silver-grey and dull-shining. The arm
heaved the body out of the hole; the beast crashed to the sand.

"It was a nondescript creature--body like a big grey cask, arm and a
sort of mouth-hole at one end; stiff, pointed tail at the other--and
that's all. No other limbs, no eyes, ears, nose--nothing! The thing
dragged itself a few yards, inserted its pointed tail in the sand,
pushed itself upright, and just sat.

"Tweel and I watched it for ten minutes before it moved. Then, with a
creaking and rustling like--oh, like crumpling stiff paper--its arm
moved to the mouth-hole and out came a brick! The arm placed the brick
carefully on the ground, and the thing was still again.

"Another ten minutes--another brick. Just one of Nature's bricklayers.
I was about to slip away and move on when Tweel pointed at the thing and
said 'rock'! I went 'huh?' and he said it again. Then, to the
accompaniment of some of his trilling, he said, 'No--no--,' and gave two
or three whistling breaths.

"Well, I got his meaning, for a wonder! I said, 'No breath?' and
demonstrated the word. Tweel was ecstatic; he said, 'Yes, yes, yes! No,
no, no breet!' Then he gave a leap and sailed out to land on his nose
about one pace from the monster!

"I was startled, you can imagine! The arm was going up for a brick, and
I expected to see Tweel caught and mangled, but--nothing happened! Tweel
pounded on the creature, and the arm took the brick and placed it neatly
beside the first. Tweel rapped on its