rbrush behind them. Glancing back, they saw tooth-studded jaws
gaping cavernously at the end of a thirty-foot neck--little,
dead-looking eyes glaring at them--a hundred-foot body smashing its
way over the trap-bushes and through tangles of vines and
down-drooping branches.

"The mate to the thing we killed back there!" Joyce panted. "Run, for
God's sake!"

Wichter needed no urging. He hadn't an ounce of fear in his spare,
small body. But he had an overwhelming desire to get back to Earth and
deliver his message. He was trembling as he raced after Joyce, thirty
feet to a bound, ducking his head to avoid hitting the thick lavender
foliage that roofed the trail.

"One of us must get through!" he panted over and over. "One of us must
make it!"

It was speedily apparent that they could never outrun their pursuer.
The reaching jaws were only a few yards behind them now.

"You go," called Joyce, sobbing for breath. He slowed his pace
deliberately.

"No--you--" Wichter slowed too. In a frenzy, Joyce shoved him along
the trail.

"I tell you--"

He got no further. In front of them, where there had appeared to be
solid ground, they suddenly saw a yawning pit. Desperately, they tried
to veer aside, but they were too close. Their last long birdlike leap
carried them over the edge. They fell, far down, into a deep chasm,
splashing into a shallow pool of water.

A few clods of earth cascaded after them as the monster above dug its
great splay feet into the ground and checked its rush in time to keep
from falling after them. Then the top of the pit slowly darkened as a
covering of some sort slid across it. They were in a prison as
profoundly quiet and utterly black as a tomb.

* * * * *

"Dorn," shouted Joyce. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," came a voice in the near darkness. "And you?"

"I'm still in one piece as far as I can feel." There was a splashing
noise. He waded toward it and in a moment his outstretched hand
touched the professor's shoulder.

"This is a fine mess," he observed shakily. "We got away from those
tooth-lined jaws, all right, but I'm wondering if we're much better
off than we would have been if we hadn't escaped."

"I'm wondering the same thing." Wichter's voice was strained. "Did you
see the way the top of the pit closed above us? That means we're in a
trap. And a most ingenious trap it is, too! The roof of it is
camouflaged until it looks exactly like the rest of