h's surface," she went on, actually blushing a little.
"It was a trashy sort of book, but--but I thought possibly there might
be something in the idea."

"There might," said her husband.

"Wherever we are, we've got to get out of this box before we do anything
else," said Adam. He felt panicky, as the realization sank into him of
what they might be in for, in this alien lab, under the care of
scientists that looked more like apes than anything.

"Look!" shouted Villa. Adam whirled and saw the small panel, that
Watkins had discovered earlier, just sliding open. A large platter came
through, heaped with what looked like a collection of junk. The huge
hand which had pushed it in withdrew, the panel slipping shut after it.
Villa was the first to reach the platter. "_Santos_," he muttered.
"_Santos y santas!_"

* * * * *

The platter was two feet square, of sky-blue plastic, and on it lay
seven pies, several dozen cupcakes, a double handful of macaroon
cookies, and a quantity of glass shards. Some of the pies were upside
down.

"What on earth...." said Mrs. Full.

"Looks like the contents of a bakery window," said Watkins, leaning over
with his briefcase clamped to his thin chest. "Window and all, I might
add."

Villa picked up a custard pie. It had been smeared up by rough handling
but it looked good to Adam. He chose one for himself, and Watkins handed
Mrs. Full an apple pie. She thanked him. They all took tentative bites.

"What do you make of this?" Watkins asked Summersby, still trying to
drag him into their group. The big man shrugged. "The glass," went on
the blond fellow, "that doesn't make sense. Do they think we eat glass?"

"Possibly," said Calvin Full.

Among the six of them, they consumed all the eatable contents of the
tray. Almost immediately Adam felt his eyelids drooping. "I'm sleepy,"
he said, yawning.

"So am I," said Villa. He lay prone and closed his eyes at once.

Adam sat down, more heavily than he had meant to. He was vaguely
disturbed by the sudden tiredness.

"Someone ought to stand guard," said Mrs. Full.

"I will," said Summersby unexpectedly.

"I'll do it," said Watkins. He started to pace up and down. "I'm a
little groggy myself, but I'll take first trick."

V

When they were let out of their prison box next morning--nine o'clock
Friday, by the chronograph, and they had slept another fifteen
hours--there were five of the gigantic beast-c