not cooked on that grill, without sauce and spice. Aargh!"

Watkins thought, Amen to that. He rubbed the sandy bristles on his chin.
No razor or soap here. It dawned on him that he was thirsty, and he went
to the fountain. As it always did when he bent over to drink, the
curious web of silver strands in the corner caught his eye. There were
so many puzzles about this damned lab that he despaired of ever solving
all of them.

After fifteen minutes, the wall opened. They went out, Villa carrying
the vulture. He flung it at the feet of the chief scientist, who was
there with two associates.

"No!" he bellowed up at it. "We do not eat this!" He articulated slowly,
clearly, as though to a foreigner with a slim knowledge of English. It
picked up the great bird and regarded it closely, then without warning
threw it at one of the other giants.

The vulture caught it on the side of the head and knocked it off
balance; falling to its knees, it bleated out an angry sound and dived
for the boss' legs. They went down together in a gargantuan scrimmage
that made the humans dance backward to avoid being smashed by the thick
swinging arms.

Tom Watkins walked off, unimpeded, to look for his briefcase. It was
nowhere in the lab. He cursed bitterly. Twenty-two grand, up the spout.

The head scientist, having chastised the other, left the room; Watkins
had a glimpse of another fully as large, with something like a big table
therein. Shortly the creature returned, carrying in one arm a load of
wood chips, and in the other a bulgy, leathery thing that turned out to
be a partially stunned octopus, still dripping the waters of an unknown
ocean.

They killed it, rebuilt their grill (larger this time), and cut up the
octopus and cooked and ate it. It wasn't as bad as Watkins had feared.

After a dragging day, they were locked into their box--no one had a
chance to gimmick the wall, for the giant were watching them
closely--and shortly afterward a load of raw vegetables was dumped in.

Watkins paced the floor after he had eaten, waiting for the sleep gas,
determined to combat it if he could. When the drowsiness came, he walked
faster. It didn't do any good. He knew he was sinking to the floor.
Powerful stuff, he said to himself, very powerful st--

* * * * *

Mrs. Full kept close to Calvin all through Sunday. They had been here
since Thursday, all these men without women, and she knew there were men
w