oft light of the
walls; detached pieces lay on the floor and in the car itself. Spud
regarded it with amazement, but the wealth he was witnessing left him
cold; another thought was forcing itself into his brain.

That thought took more definite form when another corridor took him to
rooms where great metal cases were neatly stacked; other adjoining rooms
held strange machinery and appliances on metal stands.

"Lab'ratories!" said the amazed man explosively. "And storehouses, too!
Neither angels nor devils did this; 'tis the work of men--and I know how
to get along with men. I'll go find them. Belike they have saved the
lad, Chet, and he'll be waitin' to see me."

He raced back along the corridor, but stopped short at its end, where he
had taken flight from the larger passage. There was sound of shrieking
voices, and Spud dropped to the floor to present as small a view as
possible to the half-human things that trailed their black wings past
the metal entrance; then he crept cautiously to peer around the corner,
when the last one had gone.

They were waiting out beyond; Spud watched them intently. They had great
nets of rope in which were living things that struggled and writhed.

He saw one of the creatures stoop to break off a protruding end of
pinkish, nameless substance; the thing seemed to struggle in his hands
while he took it to his mouth and munched on it. Even when Spud realized
that this living food was vegetation of some sort, he was still sickened
with the sight of its being taken alive into the bodies of these
Moon-beasts.

* * * * *

One of the ugly figures raised a black-clawed hand to seize a lever let
flush into the wall. It had been concealed. Spud saw the door open; saw
the waiting horde troop through, dragging their loaded nets; and he saw
the door close silently, while the actuating lever moved back to its
former position.

And Spud, speaking half aloud, counted slowly to a hundred, then another
hundred, as a gage of the time while he waited for those beyond the door
to move on. But at the count of two hundred his eager hands were upon
the lever, while his eyes were hungry to stare beyond the opening door.

They found nothing but emptiness when the door swung wide. Another room
of luminous walls; another door in the farther wall. The man moved
slowly through the doorway one cautious step at a time and stared about.

He found a lever like the others, moved it--