* * *

From a point of vantage, atop the _Ertak_, we watched for the end.

"I have never," said Correy in an awed voice, "seen anything take so
long to die."

"You have never before," I commented grimly, "seen a snake so large. It
took ages to grow that mighty body; it is but natural that, even with
the brain disintegrated into dust, the body would not die immediately."

"Undoubtedly he has a highly decentralized nervous system," nodded
Hendricks, who was, as I have said, something of a practical scientific
man, although no laboratory worker or sniveling scientist. "And instinct
is directing him back toward the sea from which, all unwillingly, he
came. Look--he's almost in the water."

"I don't care where he goes," said Correy savagely, "so he goes there as
carrion. Clark was a good man, sir." Clark was the man the serpent had
killed.

"True," I said. Making the entry of that loss would hurt; even though
the discipline of the Service is--or at least, used to be--very rigid,
officers get rather close to their men during the course of many tours
of duty in the confines of a little ship like the _Ertak_. "But the
_Kabit_, with her nearly two thousand souls, is safe."

We all looked up. The _Kabit_ was no longer visible. Battered, but still
space-worthy, she had gone on her way.

"I suppose," grinned Correy, "that we'll be thanked by radio." The grin
was real; Correy had had action enough to make him happy for a time. The
nervous tension was gone.

"Probably. But--watch our friend! He's in the water at last. I imagine
that's the last we'll see of him."

* * * * *

Half of the tremendous body was already in the water, lashing it into
white foam. The rest of the great length slid, twitching, down the
shore. The water boiled and seethed; dark loops flipped above the
surface and disappeared. And then, as though the giant serpent had found
peace at last, the waters subsided, and only the wreaths of white foam
upon the surface showed where he had sunk to the ooze that had given him
birth.

"Finish," I commented. "All that's left is for the scientists to flock
here to admire his bones. They'll probably condemn us for ruining his
skull. It took them a good many thousand years to find the remains of a
sea-serpent on Earth, you remember."

"Some time in the Twenty-second Century, wasn't it, sir?" asked
Hendricks. "I think my memory serves me well."

"I wouldn't swear to i