ed marks on
various tree trunks marking the direction back to the shell. The tough
fibres exuded a bluish liquid from the cuts that bubbled slowly like
blood.

* * * * *

To the right and left of them were cup-shaped bushes that looked like
traps; and that their looks were not deceiving was proved by a
muffled, bleating cry that rose from the compressed leaves of one of
them they passed. Sluggish, blind crawling things like three-foot
slugs flowed across their path and among the tree trunks, leaving
viscous trails of slime behind them. And there were larger things....

"Careful," said Wichter suddenly, coming to a halt and peering into
the gloom at their right.

"What did you see?" whispered Joyce.

Wichter shook his head. The gigantic, two-legged, purplish figure he
had dimly made out in the steamy dark, had moved away. "I don't know.
It looked a little like a giant ape."

They halted and took stock of their situation, mechanically wiping
perspiration from their streaming faces, and pondering as to whether
or not they should turn back. Joyce, who was far from being a coward,
thought they should.

"In this undergrowth," he pointed out, "we might be rushed before we
could even fire our guns. And we're nearly a mile from the shell."

But Wichter was like an eager child.

"We'll press on just a little," he urged. "To that clear spot in front
of us." He pointed along the trail to where sunlight was blazing down
through an opening in the trees. "As soon as we see what's there,
we'll go back."

With a shrug, Joyce followed the eager little man down the weird trail
under the lavender trees. In a few moments they had reached the
clearing which was Wichter's goal. They halted on its edge, gazing at
it with awe and repulsion.

* * * * *

It was a circular quagmire of festering black mud about a hundred
yards across. Near at hand they could see the mud heaving, very
slowly, as though abysmal forms of life were tunneling along just
under the surface. They glanced toward the center of the bog, which
was occupied by one of the smooth black pools, and cried aloud at
what they saw.

At the brink of the pool was lying a gigantic creature like a great,
thick snake--a snake with a lizard's head, and a series of
many-jointed, scaled legs running down its powerful length. Its mouth
was gaping open to reveal hundreds of needle-sharp, backward pointing
teeth. Its