d
great cause for a thankful heart, as you may perceive; for I had come
after a long way to another of those hollows where did burn one of the
fire-holes; and I made a pause upon the edge of the hollow in which it
did lie, and looked downward, keeping guarded within the moss-bushes,
where they grew anigh to the top thereof. But there was no living thing
there to be seen, and I went downward, so that I should warm my body at
the fire. And lo! as I stood upon this side of the fire-hole, and turned
myself about, I looked presently more keenly to the other side; for the
yellowness of the earth did seem a little strange in one place. But I
could see with no plainness, because that there arose a glare from the
fire against mine eyes; and I went round, that I should look the better;
yet with no fear or thought of Evil in my heart. And, truly! when I was
come upon that far side of the fire-hole, lo! there was spread out in
the yellow sand of that place, a Curious Thing; and I went more nigh,
and stooped to look upon it; and behold it moved, and the sand all about
did move for a great space; so that I gave back very swift, and swung
upward with the Diskos.

And, strangely, I heard the sand to stir at my back, and I looked round
very quick, and the sand rose upward in parts, and sifted back, and
there came to my sight odd things that did move and curl about.

And immediately, before I knew which way to go, I knew that the sand did
shift under my feet, and did work and heave, so that I was tottered, and
was shaken also in the heart; for I knew not what to think in that
instant. Then did I perceive that I was all surrounded, and I ran swift
upon the heaving sand, unto the edge of the fire-hole, and I turned
there, and looked quickly; for I did not know what this new Terror
should be.

And I saw that a Yellow Thing did hump upward from out of the sand, as
it had been a low hillock that did live, and the sand shed downward from
it, and it did gather to itself strange and horrid arms from the sand
all about it. And it stretched two of the arms unto me; but I smote with
the Diskos, and I smote thrice; and afterward they did wriggle upon the
sand. But this was not the end, as I did hope; for the Yellow Thing
arose, and ran at me, as it might be that you should see a spider run.
And I did leap backward, this way and that; but the monster had a great
swiftness; so that I did seem surely lost.

Then made I a strong and instant resolve;