r." Correy turned to give the orders, and in a few
minutes an orderly array of shelter tents made a single street in
front of the fat, dully-gleaming side of the _Ertak_. Our tents were
at the head of this short company street, three of them in a little
row.

After the evening meal, cooked over open fires, with the smoke of the
very resinous wood we had collected hanging comfortably in the still
air, the men gave themselves up to boisterous, noisy games, which, I
confess, I should have liked very much to participate in. They raced
and tumbled around the two big fires like schoolboys on a lark. Only
those who have spent most of their days in the metal belly of a space
ship know the sheer joy of utter physical freedom.

Correy, Kincaide and I sat before our tents and watched them, chatting
about this and that--I have long since forgotten what. But I shall
never forget what occurred just before the watch changed that night.
Nor will any man of the _Ertak's_ crew.

* * * * *

It was just a few minutes before midnight. The men had quieted down
and were preparing to turn in. I had given orders that this first
night they could suit themselves about retiring; a good officer, and I
tried to be one, is never afraid to give good men a little rein, now
and then.

The fires had died down to great heaps of red coals, filmed with
ashes, and, aside from the brilliant galaxy of stars overhead, there
was no light from above. Either this world had no moons, not even a
single moon, like my native Earth, or it had not yet arisen.

Kincaide rose lazily, stretched himself, and glanced at his watch.

"Seven till twelve, sir," he said. "I believe I'll run along and
relieve--"

He never finished that sentence. From somewhere there came a rushing
sound, and a damp, stringy net, a living, horrible, _something_,
descended upon us out of the night.

In an instant, what had been an orderly encampment became a bedlam. I
tried to fight against the stringy, animated, nearly intangible mass,
or masses, that held me, but my arms, my legs, my whole body, was
bound as with strings and loops of elastic bands.

Strange whispering sounds filled the air, audible above the shouting
of the men. The net about me grew tighter; I felt myself being lifted
from the ground. Others were being treated the same way; one of the
_Ertak's_ crew shot straight up, not a dozen feet away, writhing and
squirming. Then, at an elevation o