amid the seething play of blazing colors down there
in the valley?

The theory seemed hardly a plausible one. As far as Dixon knew,
Crawford's work had been confined almost entirely to a form of
radio-propelled projectile for use in war-time against marauding
planes.

Dixon shook his head forcibly in a vain effort to clear the stupor
that was sweeping over him. It was strange how the vivid rays of that
malevolent green moon seemed to sear insidiously into one's brain,
stifling thought as a swamp fog stifles the sunlight.

Then Dixon suddenly froze into stark immobility, staring with startled
eyes at the base of a rocky crag thirty yards away. Something was
lurking there in the green-black shadows--a great sprawling black
shape of abysmal horror, with a single flaming opalescent eye fixed
unwinkingly upon Dixon.

The next moment the vivid moon was suddenly obscured by drifting wisps
of cloud. As the green light blurred to an emerald haze, the creature
under the crag came slithering out toward Dixon.

He had a vague glimpse of a monster such as one should see only in
nightmares--a huge loathesome spider-form with a bloated body as long
as that of a man, and great sprawling legs that sent it half a dozen
yards nearer Dixon in one effortless leap.

* * * * *

The onslaught proved too much for Dixon's morale, half-dazed as he was
by the green moon's paralyzing rays. With a low inarticulate cry of
terror, he turned and ran, straining every muscle in a futile effort
to distance the frightful thing that inexorably kept pace in the
shadowy emerald gloom behind him.

Dixon's strength faded rapidly after his first wild sprint. Fifty
yards more, and his faltering muscles failed him utterly. The dread
rays of that grim green moon sapped his last faint powers of
resistance. He staggered on for a few more painful steps then sprawled
helplessly to the ground. His brain hovered momentarily upon the verge
of complete unconsciousness.

Then he was suddenly aware of a fluttering struggle, inside his tunic
where he had placed the body of the quail. A moment later and the bird
wriggled free. It promptly spread its wings and flew away, apparently
as vibrantly alive as before the mysterious paralysis had stricken
it.

The incident brought a faint surge of hope to Dixon as he dimly
realized the answer to at least part of the green moon's riddle. The
bird had recovered after being shielded in the lea