f you attack me again I must kill you," he warned. "You are not
indispensable to our purposes." Then he increased the volume of his
voice to a bull-roar: "Mrs. Collins!"

Vicki must have been watching at her door, because she came instantly.
She had changed into a soft, quilted robe with voluminous sleeves. The
belt was unfastened, and as she moved into the room the garment fell
open.

Soth had his hands before him, protectively, but as Vicki approached
slowly, gracefully, her head high and her long black hair falling over
her shoulders, the giant lowered his arms and spread them apart to
receive her. Vicki's hands were at her sides as she moved slowly toward
him.

I lay sprawled, half paralyzed in my chair. I gasped, "Vicki, for God's
sake, no!"

Vicki looked over at me. Her face was as impassive as the Soth's. She
moved into his embrace, and as his arms closed around her I saw the
knife. My hunting knife, honed as fine as the edge of a microtome blade.
Smoothly she brought it from her kimono sleeve, raised it from between
her thighs and slashed up.

The Soth's embrace helped force it deeply into him. With a frantic
wrench Vicki forced it upward with both hands, until the Soth was split
from crotch to where a man's heart would be.

His arms flailed apart and he fell backward. His huge chest heaved and
his throat tightened in a screaming hiss that tore at our eardrums like
a factory steam-whistle. He leaned back against the wall and hugged his
ripped torso together with both arms. The thick, purple juices spilled
out of him in a gushing flood, and his knees collapsed suddenly. His
dead face plowed into the carpet.

* * * * *

Vicki came back to me. Her white body was splashed and stained and her
robe drenched in Soth's blood, but her face was no longer pale, and she
still clutched the dripping hunting knife by its leather handle.

"That's number one," she said. "Are you hurt badly, darling?"

"Couple of ribs, I think," I told her, waiting for her to faint. But she
didn't. She laid the knife carefully on a table, poured me a big drink
of whiskey and stuffed a pillow behind my back.

Then she stared down at herself. "Wait until I get this bug juice off
me, and I'll get some tape."

She showered and was back in five minutes wearing a heavy hunting
jumper. Her hair was wrapped and pinned into a quick pug at the base of
her handsome little head. She stripped me to the waist, poke