d was after him again.

* * * * *

A second time Harley fled through the dim-lighted night, stumbling over
boulders and tripping on creepers. But this time his flight was not that
of panic. Frightened enough, he was; but his mind was working clearly as
he leaped through the forest away from the source of the crashing.

The first thing he noted was that though--as far as his ears could
inform him--he was managing to keep his lead, he wasn't outdistancing
his horrible pursuer by a yard. Dark though the night was, and far away
as he contrived to keep himself, the colossus seemed to cling to his
trail as easily as though following a well-blazed path.

He climbed a tree, faced at right angles to the course he had pursued,
and swung for the next tree. It was a long jump. But desperation lent
abnormal power to his muscles, and the gravity regulator adjusted to
extremely low pitch, was a great help. He made it safely. Another
swinging leap into the dark, to land sprawling in a second tree; a
third; a fourth. Finally be crouched in a tangle of boughs, and
listened. He was a quarter of a mile from the point where he had turned
from his first direction. Perhaps this deviation would throw the rock
terror off.

It didn't. He heard the steady smashing noise stop. For an instant there
was a silence in the darkness of the asteroid that was painful. Then the
crashing was resumed, this time drawing straight toward where he was
hidden. Somehow the thing had learned of his change of direction.

He continued his flight into the night, his eyes staring glassily into
the darkness, his expression the ghastly one of a condemned man. And as
he fled the crashing behind him told how he was followed--easily
infallibly, in spite of all his twisting and turning and efforts at
concealment. What hellish intelligence the monster must possess!

He ran for eternities. He ran till his chest was on fire, and the
sobbing agony of his breathing could be heard for yards. He ran till
spots of fire floated before his eyes and the blood, throbbing in his
brain, cut out the noise of the devilish pursuit behind him. At long
last his legs buckled under him, and he fell, to rise no more.

He was done. He knew it. His was the position of the hunted animal that
lies panting, every muscle paralyzed with absolute exhaustion, and
glares in an agony of helplessness at the hunter whose approach spells
death.

The crashing grew louder