torn back in a great arch, the insect shrilling
ceased.

As the strings of a harp are damped and silenced in unison, their myriad
voices ended that shrill note in the same instant. The silence spread;
there was a hush as if all living things were mute in dread expectancy
of something as yet unseen.

Chet was watching that arched opening. In one instant, except for the
flickering shadows, it was empty; the place was so still it might have
been lifeless since the dawn of time. And then--

* * * * *

Chet neither saw nor heard him come. He was there--a hulking hairy
figure that came in absolute silence despite his huge weight.

An ape-man larger than any Chet had seen: he stood as motionless as an
exhibit in a museum in some city of a far-off Earth. Only the white of
his eyeballs moved as the little eyes, under their beetling black brows,
darted swiftly about.

"Bad!" thought Chet. "Damn bad!" If this was an advance scout for a pick
of great monsters like himself it meant an assault their own little
force could never meet. And this newcomer was hostile. There was not the
least doubt of that.

Chet reached one hand behind him to motion for silence; one of his
companions had stirred, had moved the grass in a ripple that was not
that of the wind. Chet held his hand rigid in air, his whole body
seeming to freeze with a premonition that was pure horror; and within
him was a voice that said with dreadful certainty: "They have found you.
They have hunted you down."

For the thing in the forest, the creature half-human, half-beast, had
raised its two shaggy arms before it; and, with eyes fixed and staring,
it was walking straight toward them, walking as no other living thing
had walked, but one. Chet was seeing again that one--a helplessly
hypnotized ape that appeared from a pit in a great pyramid. And the
voice within him repeated hopelessly: "They have found you. They have
run you down."

Chet lay motionless. He still hoped that the dread messenger might pass
them by, but the rigidly outstretched arms were extended straight toward
him; the creature's short, heavily muscled legs were moving stiffly,
tearing a path through the thick grass and bringing him nearer with
every step.

* * * * *

Diane and Harkness had been a few paces in advance of Chet when they
dropped into the concealing grass. Chet could see where they lay, and
the ape-man, as he approach