delayed killing him just a moment ago? Its every act indicated that it
possessed intelligence of a high order. It was more than probable that
it realized its limitation--why hadn't it acted in accordance with that
realization?

On thinking it over, he believed he had the answer to that, too. He
remembered the way the gaping mouth had seemed to express devilish
mirth. The thing was playing with him. That was all. It had saved him
for another night of hopeless flight and infallible trailing through the
forests of Z-40.

He gazed at the monster in a frenzy of impotent rage and fear. If only
he could kill it somehow in its sleep! But he couldn't. In no way could
he harm it. Secure in its silicate covering, it was impervious to his
wildest attempts at destruction. And it knew it, too; hadn't it laughed
just before sinking down to slumber through the asteroidal day?

With his Sco drill he might have pierced that silicon dioxide armor till
he reached the creature's gritty flesh. Then he could have used his
ray-pistol, possibly disintegrating all its vitals and leaving only an
empty rock shell sprawling hugely there in the trampled underbrush.

But he had neither drill nor pistol. The one had been wrecked by the
monster; the other he had dropped in his madness of fright, after
completely exhausting its power chamber.

Half crazed by the hopelessness of his plight, he paced up and down
beside the great length of animated stone. Trapped on an
asteroid--utterly unarmed--alone with the most pitiless, invulnerable
creation Nature had placed in a varied universe! Could Hell itself have
devised a more terrible fate?

Shuddering, he turned away. He had some two and a half hours of grace,
before the sun should set again and darkness release the colossus from
its torpor. There was only one thing he could do: place the diameter of
the sphere between the thing and himself, and try to exist through
another night of terror.

His hands went to his belt to adjust the gravity regulator strapped
about his waist. By reducing his weight to an ounce or two, he could
make the long journey possible for his fatigue-numbed muscles--

His hands clenched into fists, and his breath whistled between his set
teeth as a wild hope came to him. The touch of the regulator had brought
inspiration. A way to defeat the gigantic creature stretched on the
ground beside him! A way to banish it forever from the surface of this
lovely little world where all