by some nightmare
denizen of the forest was understandable.

The fact that the Arm was also an excellent place to dispose of an
inconvenient body didn't occur to Albert until the three natives with
knives detached themselves from the rear of the Sanitary Processional
and advanced upon him. They came from three directions, effectively
boxing him in, and Albert realized with a sick certainty that he had
been double-crossed, that Shifaz, instead of being an informant for him,
was working for the IC. Albert turned to face the nearest native,
tensing his muscles for battle.

Then he saw the Zark.

It stepped out of the gathering darkness of the forest, and with its
appearance everything stopped. For perhaps a micro-second, the three
Vaornese stood frozen. Then, with a simultaneous wheep of terror, they
turned and ran for the city.

They might have stayed and finished their work if they had known it was
a Zark, but at the moment the Zark was energizing a toothy horror that
Earthmen called a Bandersnatch--an insane combination of talons, teeth
and snakelike neck mounted on a crocodilian body that exuded an odor of
putrefaction from the carrion upon which it normally fed. The
Bandersnatch had been dead for several hours, but neither the natives
nor Albert knew that.

* * * * *

It was a tribute to the Zark's ability to maintain pseudo-life in a
Bandersnatch carcass that the knifemen fled and a similar panic seized
the late travelers on the road. Albert stared with horrified fascination
at the monstrosity for several seconds before he, too, fled. Any number
of natives with knives were preferable to a Bandersnatch. He had
hesitated only because he didn't possess the conditioned reflexes
arising from generations of exposure to Antarian wildlife.

[Illustration]

He was some twenty yards behind the rearmost native, and, though not
designed for speed, was actually gaining upon the fellow, when his foot
struck a loose cobblestone in the road. Arms flailing, legs pumping
desperately to balance his toppling mass, Albert fought manfully against
the forces of gravity and inertia.

He lost.

His head struck another upturned cobble. His body twitched once and then
relaxed limply and unconscious upon the dusty road.

The Zark winced a little at the sight, certain that this curious
creature had damaged itself seriously.

Filled with compassion, it started forward on the Bandersnatch's four
walk