at this helpless prey.

They were firing wildly, with desperation in every heavy thrust of
bolt. Then one Throg threw down his blaster, raised his arms over his
head, and voicing the same high wail uttered by his comrade-in-arms
earlier, he ran straight into the mist where a shape materialized,
closed in behind him, cutting him off from his fellows.

That break demoralized the others. The Throg commander burned down two
of his company with his blaster, but three more broke past him to the
fog. One of the remaining party reversed his blaster, swung the stock
against the officer's carapace, beating him to his knees, before the
attacker raced on into the billows of the mist. Another threw himself on
the ground and lay there, pounding his claws against the baked earth.
While a remaining two continued with stolid precision to fire at the
lurking shapes which could only be half seen; and a third helped the
officer to his feet.

The Throg commander reeled back against the frame, his musky body scent
filling Shann's nostrils. But he, too, paid no attention to the Terran,
though his horny arms scraped across Shann's. Holding both of his claws
to his head, he staggered on, to be engulfed by a new arm of the fog.

Then, as if the swallowing of the officer had given the mist a fresh
appetite, the wan light waved in a last vast billow over the clear area
about the frame. Shann felt its substance cold, slimy, on his skin. This
was a deadly breath of un-life.

He was weakened, sapped of strength, so that he hung in his bounds, his
head lolling forward on his breast. Warmth pressed against him, a warm
wet touch on his cold skin, a sensation of friendly concern in his mind.
Shann gasped, found that he was no longer filling his lungs with that
chill staleness which was the breath of the fog. He opened his eyes,
struggling to raise his head. The gray light had retreated, but though a
Throg blaster lay close to his feet, another only a yard beyond, there
was no sign of the aliens.

Instead, standing on their hind feet to press against him in a demand
for his attention, were the wolverines. And seeing them, Shann dared to
believe that the impossible could be true; somehow he was safe.

He spoke. And Taggi and Togi answered with eager whines. The mist was
withdrawing more slowly than it had come. Here and there things lay very
still on the ground.

"Lantee!"

This time the call came not into his mind but out of the air. Shann made