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diff --git a/41637-0.txt b/41637-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8bf9d67 --- /dev/null +++ b/41637-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6109 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41637 *** + + _The FORGOTTEN PLANET_ + + By MURRAY LEINSTER + + [Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence + that the copyright had been renewed.] + + + ACE BOOKS + A Division of A. A. Wyn, Inc. + 23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y. + + THE FORGOTTEN PLANET + Copyright, 1954, by Murray Leinster + An Ace Book, by arrangement with Gnome Press, Inc. + + _The Forgotten Planet_ is based upon _Mad Planet_ and _Red Dust_ + (copyrighted Amazing Stories 1926, 1927), and _Nightmare Planet_ + (copyrighted 1953 by Gernsback Publications Inc.). + + + To Joan Patricia Jenkins + + + + +NATURE'S MISLEAD MADHOUSE! + + +Beneath dense gray clouds through which no sun shone lay a forgotten +planet. It was a nightmare world of grotesque and terrifying +animal-plant life. Gigantic beetles, spiders, bugs and ants filled the +putrid, musty earth--ready to kill and devour anything in sight. + +There were men amidst this horror--men who cringed and ran from the +ravening monsters and huddled in the mushroom forests at night. + +Burl was one of these creatures. But one day inspiration hit Burl. He +would find a weapon--he would fight back. + +And with this idea the first step was taken in man's most desperate +flight for freedom in this most horrible of all worlds. But it was only +a first step. + + + + + +About the characters in this book: + + +This is something of an oddity among fiction stories, because some of +its characters may be met in person if you wish. Down at the nearest +weed-patch or thicket you are quite likely to see a large and unusually +perfect spider-web with a zig-zag silk ribbon woven into its center. Its +engineer is the yellow-banded garden spider (_Epeira Fasciata_) whose +abdomen may be as big as your thumb. I do not name it to impress you, +but to suggest a sort of science-fiction experience. + +Take a bit of straw and disturb the web. Don't break the cables. Simply +tap them a bit. The spider will know by the feel of things that you +aren't prey and that it can't eat you. So it will set out frightening +you away. It will run nimbly to the center of the web and shake itself +violently. The whole web will vibrate, so that presently the spider may +be swinging through an arc inches in length, and blurred by the speed of +its swing. You are supposed to be scared. When you are alarmed enough, +the spider will stop. + +That spider, very much magnified, is in this book with crickets and +grasshoppers and divers beetles you may not know personally. But this is +not an insect book, but science-fiction. If the habits of the creatures +in it are authentic, it is because they are much more dramatic and +interesting than things one can invent. + +Murray Leinster + + + + +_PROLOGUE_ + + +The Survey-Ship _Tethys_ made the first landing on the planet, which had +no name. It was an admirable planet in many ways. It had an ample +atmosphere and many seas, which the nearby sun warmed so lavishly that a +perpetual cloud-bank hid them and most of the solid ground from view. It +had mountains and continents and islands and high plateaus. It had day +and night and wind and rain, and its mean temperature was within the +range to which human beings could readily accommodate. It was rather on +the tropic side, but not unpleasant. + +But there was no life on it. + +No animals roamed its continents. No vegetation grew from its rocks. Not +even bacteria struggled with its stones to turn them into soil. So there +was no soil. Rock and stones and gravel and even sand--yes. But no soil +in which any vegetation could grow. No living thing, however small, swam +in its oceans, so there was not even mud on its ocean-bottoms. It was +one of that disappointing vast majority of worlds which turned up when +the Galaxy was first explored. People couldn't live on it because +nothing had lived there before. + +Its water was fresh and its oceans were harmless. Its air was germ-free +and breathable. But it was of no use whatever for men. The only possible +purpose it could serve would have been as a biological laboratory for +experiments involving things growing in a germ-free environment. But +there were too many planets like that already. When men first traveled +to the stars they made the journey because it was starkly necessary to +find new worlds for men to live on. Earth was over-crowded--terribly so. +So men looked for new worlds to move to. They found plenty of new +worlds, but presently they were searching desperately for new worlds +where life had preceded them. It didn't matter whether the life was meek +and harmless, or ferocious and deadly. If life of any sort were present, +human beings could move in. But highly organized beings like men could +not live where there was no other life. + +So the Survey-Ship _Tethys_ made sure that the world had no life upon +it. Then it made routine measurements of the gravitational constant and +the magnetic field and the temperature gradient; it took samples of the +air and water. But that was all. The rocks were familiar enough. No +novelties there! But the planet was simply useless. The survey-ship put +its findings on a punched card, six inches by eight, and went hastily on +in search of something better. The ship did not even open one of its +ports while on the planet. There were no consequences of the _Tethys'_ +visit except that card. None whatever. + +No other ship came near the planet for eight hundred years. + +Nearly a millenium later, however, the Seed-Ship _Orana_ arrived. By +that time humanity had spread very widely and very far. There were +colonies not less than a quarter of the way to the Galaxy's rim, and +Earth was no longer over-crowded. There was still emigration, but it was +now a trickle instead of the swarming flood of centuries before. Some of +the first-colonized worlds had emigrants, now. Mankind did not want to +crowd itself together again! Men now considered that there was no excuse +for such monstrous slums as overcrowding produced. + +Now, too, the star-ships were faster. A hundred light-years was a short +journey. A thousand was not impractical. Explorers had gone many times +farther, and reported worlds still waiting for mankind on beyond. But +still the great majority of discovered planets did not contain life. +Whole solar systems floated in space with no single living cell on any +of their members. + +So the Seed-Ships came into being. Theirs was not a glamorous service. +They merely methodically contaminated the sterile worlds with life. The +Seed-Ship _Orana_ landed on this planet--which still had no name. It +carefully infected it. It circled endlessly above the clouds, dribbling +out a fine dust,--the spores of every conceivable microörganism which +could break down rock to powder, and turn that dust to soil. It was also +a seeding of moulds and fungi and lichens, and everything which could +turn powdery primitive soil into stuff on which higher forms of life +could grow. The _Orana_ polluted the seas with plankton. Then it, too, +went away. + +More centuries passed. Human ships again improved. A thousand +light-years became a short journey. Explorers reached the Galaxy's very +edge, and looked estimatingly across the emptiness toward other island +universes. There were colonies in the Milky Way. There were +freight-lines between star-clusters, and the commercial center of human +affairs shifted some hundreds of parsecs toward the Rim. There were many +worlds where the schools painstakingly taught the children what Earth +was, and where, and that all other worlds had been populated from it. +And the schools repeated, too, the one lesson that humankind seemed +genuinely to have learned. That the secret of peace is freedom, and the +secret of freedom is to be able to move away from people with whom you +do not agree. There were no crowded worlds any more. But human beings +love children, and they have them. And children grow up and need room. +So more worlds had to be looked out for. They weren't urgently needed +yet, but they would be. + +Therefore, nearly a thousand years after the _Orana_, the Ecology-Ship +_Ludred_ swam to the planet from space and landed on it. It was a +gigantic ship of highly improbable purpose. First of all, it checked on +the consequences of the _Orana's_ visit. + +They were highly satisfactory, from a technical point of view. Now there +was soil which swarmed with minute living things. There were fungi +which throve monstrously. The seas stank of minuscule life-forms. There +were even some novelties, developed by the strictly local conditions. +There were, for example, paramoecia as big as grapes, and yeasts had +increased in size until they bore flowers visible to the naked eye. The +life on the planet was not aboriginal, though. All of it was descended +and adapted and modified from the microörganisms planted by the +seed-ship whose hulk was long since rust, and whose crew were merely +names in genealogies--if that. + +The _Ludred_ stayed on the planet a considerably longer time than either +of the ships that had visited it before. It dropped the seeds of plants. +It broadcast innumerable varieties of things which should take root and +grow. In some places it deliberately seeded the stinking soil. It put +marine plants in the oceans. It put alpine plants on the high ground. +And when all its stable varieties were set out it added plants which +were genetically unstable. For generations to come they would throw +sports, some of which should be especially suited to this planetary +environment. + +Before it left, the _Ludred_ dumped finny fish into the seas. At first +they would live on the plankton which made the oceans almost broth. +There were many varieties of fish. Some would multiply swiftly while +small; others would grow and feed on the smaller varieties. And as a +last activity, the _Ludred_ set up refrigeration-units loaded with +insect-eggs. Some would release their contents as soon as plants had +grown enough to furnish them with food. Others would allow their +contents to hatch only after certain other varieties had multiplied--to +be their food-supply. + +When the Ecology-Ship left, it had done a very painstaking job. It had +treated the planet to a sort of Russell's Mixture of life-forms. The +real Russell's Mixture is that blend of the simple elements in the +proportions found in suns. This was a blend of life-forms in which some +should survive by consuming the now-habituated flora, others by preying +on the former. The planet was stocked, in effect, with everything that +it could be hoped would live there. + +But only certain things could have that hope. Nothing which needed +parental care had any chance of survival. The creatures seeded at this +time had to be those which could care for themselves from the instant +they burst their eggs. So there were no birds or mammals. Trees and +plants of many kinds, fish and crustaceans and tadpoles, and all kinds +of insects could be planted. But nothing else. + +The _Ludred_ swam away through emptiness. + +There should have been another planting centuries later. There should +have been a ship from the Zoölogical Branch of the Ecological Service. +It should have landed birds and beasts and reptiles. It should have +added pelagic mammals to the seas. There should have been herbivorous +animals to live on the grasses and plants which would have thriven, and +carnivorous animals to live on them in turn. There should have been +careful stocking of the planet with animal life, and repeated visits at +intervals of a century or so to make sure that a true ecological balance +had been established. And then when the balance was fixed men would come +and destroy it for their own benefit. + +But there was an accident. + +Ships had improved again. Even small private space-craft now journeyed +tens of light-years on holiday journeys. Personal cruisers traveled +hundreds. Liners ran matter-of-factly on ship-lines tens of thousands of +light-years long. An exploring-ship was on its way to a second island +universe. (It did not come back.) The inhabited planets were all members +of a tenuous organization which limited itself to affairs of space, +without attempting to interfere in surface matters. That tenuous +organization moved the Ecological Preparation Service files to Algol IV +as a matter of convenience. In the moving, a card-file was upset. The +cards it contained were picked up and replaced, but one was missed. It +was not picked up. It was left behind. + +So the planet which had no name was forgotten. No other ship came to +prepare it for ultimate human occupancy. It circled its sun, unheeded +and unthought-of. Cloud-banks covered it from pole to pole. There were +hazy markings in some places, where high plateaus penetrated its clouds. +But that was all. From space the planet was essentially featureless. +Seen from afar it was merely a round white ball--white from its +cloud-banks--and nothing else. + +But on its surface, on its lowlands, it was pure nightmare. But this +fact did not matter for a very long time. + +Ultimately, it mattered a great deal--to the crew of the space-liner +_Icarus_. The _Icarus_ was a splendid ship of its time. It bore +passengers headed for one of the Galaxy's spiral arms, and it cut across +the normal lanes and headed through charted but unvisited parts of the +Galaxy toward its destination. And it had one of the very, very, very +few accidents known to happen to space-craft licensed for travel off the +normal space-lanes. It suffered shipwreck in space, and its passengers +and crew were forced to take to the life-craft. + +The lifeboats' range was limited. They landed on the planet that the +_Tethys_ had first examined, that the _Orana_ and the _Ludred_ had +seeded, and of which there was no longer any record in the card-files of +the Ecological Service. Their fuel was exhausted. They could not leave. +They could not signal for help. They had to stay there. And the planet +was a place of nightmares. + +After a time the few people--some few thousands--who knew that there was +a space-liner named _Icarus_, gave it up for lost. They forgot about it. +Everybody forgot. Even the passengers and crew of the ship forgot it. +Not immediately, of course. For the first few generations their +descendants cherished hopes of rescue. But the planet which had no +name--the forgotten planet--did not encourage the cherishing of hope. + +After forty-odd generations, nobody remembered the _Icarus_ anywhere. +The wreckage of the lifeboats was long since hidden under the seething, +furiously striving fungi of the soil. The human beings had forgotten not +only their ancestors' ship, but very nearly everything their ancestors +had brought to this world: the use of metals, the existence of fire, and +even the fact that there was such a thing as sunshine. They lived in the +lowlands, deep under the cloud-bank, amid surroundings which were +riotous, swarming, frenzied horror. They had become savages. + +They were less than savages, because they had forgotten their destiny as +men. + + + + +_1. MAD PLANET_ + + +In all his lifetime of perhaps twenty years, it had never occurred to +Burl to wonder what his grandfather had thought about his surroundings. +The grandfather had come to an untimely end in a fashion which Burl +remembered as a succession of screams coming more and more faintly to +his ears, while he was being carried away at the topmost speed of which +his mother was capable. + +Burl had rarely or never thought of his grandfather since. Surely he had +never wondered what his great-grandfather had thought, and most surely +of all he never speculated upon what his many-times-removed +great-grandfather had thought when his lifeboat landed from the +_Icarus_. Burl had never heard of the _Icarus_. He had done very little +thinking of any sort. When he did think, it was mostly agonized effort +to contrive a way to escape some immediate and paralyzing danger. When +horror did not press upon him, it was better not to think, because there +wasn't much but horror to think about. + +At the moment, he was treading cautiously over a brownish carpet of +fungus, creeping furtively toward the stream which he knew only by the +generic name of "water." It was the only water he knew. Towering far +above his head, three man-heights high, great toadstools hid the gray +sky from his sight. Clinging to the yard-thick stalks of the toadstools +were still other fungi, parasites upon the growths that once had been +parasites themselves. + +Burl appeared a fairly representative specimen of the descendants of the +long-forgotten _Icarus_ crew. He wore a single garment twisted about his +middle, made from the wing-fabric of a great moth which the members of +his tribe had slain as it emerged from its cocoon. His skin was fair +without a trace of sunburn. In all his lifetime he had never seen the +sun, though he surely had seen the sky often enough. It was rarely +hidden from him save by giant fungi, like those about him now, and +sometimes by the gigantic cabbages which were nearly the only green +growths he knew. To him normal landscape contained only fantastic pallid +mosses, and misshapen fungus growths, and colossal moulds and yeasts. + +He moved onward. Despite his caution, his shoulder once touched a +cream-colored toadstool stalk, giving the whole fungus a tiny shock. +Instantly a fine and impalpable powder fell upon him from the umbrella +like top above. It was the season when the toadstools sent out their +spores. He paused to brush them from his head and shoulders. They were, +of course, deadly poison. + +Burl knew such matters with an immediate and specific and detailed +certainty. He knew practically nothing else. He was ignorant of the use +of fire, of metals, and even of the uses of stone and wood. His language +was a scanty group of a few hundred labial sounds, conveying no +abstractions and few concrete ideas. He knew nothing of wood, because +there was no wood in the territory furtively inhabited by his tribe. +This was the lowlands. Trees did not thrive here. Not even grasses and +tree-ferns could compete with mushrooms and toadstools and their kin. +Here was a soil of rusts and yeasts. Here were toadstool forests and +fungus jungles. They grew with feverish intensity beneath a cloud-hidden +sky, while above them fluttered butterflies no less enlarged than they, +moths as much magnified, and other creatures which could thrive on their +corruption. + +The only creatures on the planet which crawled or ran or flew--save only +Burl's fugitive kind--were insects. They had been here before men came, +and they had adapted to the planet's extraordinary ways. With a world +made ready before their first progenitors arrived, insects had thriven +incredibly. With unlimited food-supplies, they had grown large. With +increased size had come increased opportunity for survival, and +enlargement became hereditary. Other than fungoid growths, the solitary +vegetables were the sports of unstable varieties of the plants left +behind by the _Ludred_. There were enormous cabbages, with leaves the +size of ship-sails, on which stolid grubs and caterpillars ate +themselves to maturity, and then swung below in strong cocoons to sleep +the sleep of metamorphosis. The tiniest butterflies of Earth had +increased their size here until their wings spread feet across, and +some--like the emperor moths--stretched out purple wings which were +yards in span. Burl himself would have been dwarfed beneath a great +moth's wing. + +But he wore a gaudy fabric made of one. The moths and giant butterflies +were harmless to men. Burl's fellow tribesmen sometimes came upon a +cocoon when it was just about to open, and if they dared they waited +timorously beside it until the creature inside broke through its +sleeping-shell and came out into the light. + +Then, before it gathered energy from the air and before its wings +swelled to strength and firmness, the tribesmen fell upon it. They tore +the delicate wings from its body and the still-flaccid limbs from their +places. And when it lay helpless before them they fled away to feast on +its juicy meat-filled limbs. + +They dared not linger, of course. They left their prey helpless--staring +strangely at the world about it through its many-faceted eyes--before +the scavengers came to contest its ownership. If nothing more deadly +appeared, surely the ants would come. Some of them were only inches +long, but others were the size of fox-terriers. All of them had to be +avoided by men. They would carry the moth-carcass away to their +underground cities, triumphantly, in shreds and morsels. + +But most of the insect world was neither so helpless nor so +unthreatening. Burl knew of wasps almost the length of his own body, +with stings that were instantly fatal. To every species of wasp, +however, some other insect is predestined prey. Wasps need not be +dreaded too much. And bees were similarly aloof. They were hard put to +it for existence, those bees. Since few flowers bloomed, they were +reduced to expedients that once were considered signs of degeneracy in +their race: bubbling yeasts and fouler things, or occasionally the +nectarless blooms of the rank giant cabbages. Burl knew the bees. They +droned overhead, nearly as large as he was, their bulging eyes gazing at +him and everything else in abstracted preoccupation. + +There were crickets, and beetles, and spiders.... Burl knew spiders! His +grandfather had been the prey of a hunting tarantula which had leaped +with incredible ferocity from its tunnel in the ground. A vertical pit, +a yard in diameter, went down for twenty feet. At the bottom of the lair +the monster waited for the tiny sounds that would warn him of prey +approaching his hiding-place. + +Burl's grandfather had been careless. The terrible shrieks he uttered as +he was seized still lingered vaguely in Burl's mind. And he had seen, +too, the webs of another species of spider--inch-thick cables of dirty +silk--and watched from a safe distance as the misshapen monster sucked +the juices from a three-foot cricket its trap had caught. He remembered +the stripes of yellow and black and silver that crossed upon its +abdomen. He had been fascinated and horrified by the blind struggling of +the cricket, tangled in hopeless coils of gummy cord, before the spider +began its feast. + +Burl knew these dangers. They were part of his life. It was this +knowledge that made life possible. He knew the ways to evade these +dangers. But if he yielded to carelessness for one moment, or if he +relaxed his caution for one instant, he would be one with his ancestors. +They were the long-forgotten meals of inhuman monsters. + +Now, to be sure, Burl moved upon an errand that probably no other of his +tribe would have imagined. The day before, he had crouched behind a +shapeless mound of inter-tangled growths and watched a duel between two +huge horned beetles. Their bodies were feet long. Their carapaces were +waist-high to Burl when they crawled. Their mandibles, gaping laterally, +clicked and clashed upon each other's impenetrable armor. Their legs +crashed like so many cymbals as they struck against each other. They +fought over some particularly attractive bit of carrion. + +Burl had watched with wide eyes until a gaping hole appeared in the +armor of the smaller one. It uttered a grating outcry--or seemed to. The +noise was actually the tearing of its shell between the mandibles of the +victor. + +The wounded creature struggled more and more feebly. When it ceased to +offer battle, the conqueror placidly began to dine before its prey had +ceased to live. But this was the custom of creatures on this planet. + +Burl watched, timorous but hopeful. When the meal was finished, he +darted in quickly as the diner lumbered away. He was almost too late, +even then. An ant--the forerunner of many--already inspected the +fragments with excitedly vibrating antennae. + +Burl needed to move quickly and he did. Ants were stupid and +short-sighted insects; few of them were hunters. Save when offered +battle, most of them were scavengers only. They hunted the scenes of +nightmare for the dead and dying only, but fought viciously if their +prey were questioned. And always there were others on the way. + +Some were arriving now. Hearing the tiny clickings of their approach, +Burl was hasty. Over-hasty. He seized a loosened fragment and fled. It +was merely the horn, the snout of the dead and eaten creature. But it +was loose and easily carried. He ran. + +Later he inspected his find with disappointment. There was little meat +clinging to it. It was merely the horn of a Minotaur beetle, shaped like +the horn of a rhinoceros. Plucking out the shreds left by its murderer, +he pricked his hand. Pettishly, he flung it aside. The time of darkness +was near, so he crept to the hiding place of his tribe to huddle with +them until light came again. + +There were only twenty of them; four or five men and six or seven women. +The rest were girls or children. Burl had been wondering at the strange +feelings that came over him when he looked at one of the girls. She was +younger than Burl--perhaps eighteen--and fleeter of foot. They talked +together sometimes and, once or twice, Burl shared an especially +succulent find of foodstuffs with her. + +He could share nothing with her now. She stared at him in the deepening +night when he crept to the labyrinthine hiding place the tribe now used +in a mushroom forest. He considered that she looked hungry and hoped +that he would have food to share. And he was bitterly ashamed that he +could offer nothing. He held himself a little apart from the rest, +because of his shame. Since he too was hungry, it was some time before +he slept. Then he dreamed. + +Next morning he found the horn where he had thrown it disgustedly the +day before. It was sticking in the flabby trunk of a toadstool. He +pulled it out. In his dream he had used it.... + +Presently he tried to use it. Sometimes--not often--the men of the tribe +used the saw-toothed edge of a cricket-leg, or the leg of a +grasshopper, to sever tough portions of an edible mushroom. The horn had +no cutting edge, but Burl had used it in his dream. He was not quite +capable of distinguishing clearly between reality and dreams; so he +tried to duplicate what happened in the dream. Remembering that it had +stuck into the mushroom-stalk, he thrust it. It stabbed. He remembered +distinctly how the larger beetle had used its horn as a weapon. It had +stabbed, too. + +He considered absorbedly. He could not imagine himself fighting one of +the dangerous insects, of course. Men did not fight, on the forgotten +planet. They ran away. They hid. But somehow Burl formed a fantastic +picture of himself stabbing food with this horn, as he had stabbed a +mushroom. It was longer than his arm and though naturally clumsy in his +hand, it would have been a deadly weapon in the grip of a man prepared +to do battle. + +Battle did not occur to Burl. But the idea of stabbing food with it was +clear. There could be food that would not fight back. Presently he had +an inspiration. His face brightened. He began to make his way toward the +tiny river that ran across the plain in which the tribe of humans lived +by foraging in competition with the ants. Yellow-bellied newts--big +enough to be lusted for--swam in its waters. The swimming larvae of a +thousand kinds of creatures floated on the sluggish surface or crawled +over the bottom. + +There were deadly things there, too. Giant crayfish snapped their claws +at the unwary. One of them could sever Burl's arm with ease. Mosquitoes +sometimes hummed high above the river. Mosquitoes had a four-inch +wing-spread, now, though they were dying out for lack of plant-juices on +which the males of their species fed. But they were formidable. Burl had +learned to crush them between fragments of fungus. + +He crept slowly through the forest of toadstools. What should have been +grass underfoot was brownish rust. Orange and red and purple moulds +clustered about the bases of the creamy mushroom-trunks. Once, Burl +paused to run his weapon through a fleshy column and reassure himself +that what he planned was possible. + +He made his way furtively through the bulbous growths. Once he heard +clickings and froze to stillness. Four or five ants, minims only eight +inches long, were returning by an habitual pathway to their city. They +moved sturdily along, heavily laden, over the route marked by the scent +of formic acid left by their fellow-townsmen. Burl waited until they had +passed, then went on. + +He came to the bank of the river. It flowed slowly, green scum covering +a great deal of its surface in the backwaters, occasionally broken by a +slowly enlarging bubble released from decomposing matter on the bottom. +In the center of the stream the current ran a little more swiftly and +the water itself seemed clear. Over it ran many water-spiders. They had +not shared in the general increase of size in the insect world. +Depending as they did on the surface tension of the water for support, +to have grown larger and heavier would have destroyed them. + +Burl surveyed the scene. His search was four parts for danger and only +one part for a way to test his brilliant notion, but that was natural. +Where he stood, the green scum covered the stream for many yards. +Down-river a little, though, the current came closer to the bank. Here +he could not see whatever swam or crawled or wriggled underwater; there +he might. + +There was an outcropping rock forming a support for crawling stuff, +which in turn supported shelf-fungi making wide steps almost down to the +water's edge. Burl was making his way cautiously toward them when he saw +one of the edible mushrooms which formed so large a part of his diet. He +paused to break off a flabby white piece large enough to feed him for +many days. It was the custom of his people, when they found a store of +food, to hide with it and not venture out again to danger until it was +all eaten. Burl was tempted to do just that with his booty. He could +give Saya of this food and they would eat together. They might hide +together until it was all consumed. + +But there was a swirling in the water under the descending platforms of +shelf-fungi. A very remarkable sensation came to Burl. He may have been +the only man in many generations to be aware of the high ambition to +stab something to eat. He may have been a throw-back to ancestors who +had known bravery, which had no survival-value here. But Burl had +imagined carrying Saya food which he had stabbed with the spear of a +Minotaur beetle. It was an extraordinary idea. + +It was new, too. Not too long ago, when he was younger, Burl would have +thought of the tribe instead. He'd have thought of old Jon, bald-headed +and wheezing and timorous, and how that patriarch would pat his arm +exuberantly when handed food; or old Tama, wrinkled and querulous, whose +look of settled dissatisfaction would vanish at sight of a tidbit; of +Dik and Tet, the tribe-members next younger, who would squabble +zestfully over the fragments allotted them. + +But now he imagined Saya looking astonished and glad when he grandly +handed her more food than she could possibly eat. She would admire him +enormously! + +Of course he did not imagine himself fighting to get food for Saya. He +meant only to stab something edible in the water. Things in the water +did not fight things on land. Since he would not be in the water, he +would not be in a fight. It was a completely delectable idea, which no +man within memory had ever entertained before. If Burl accomplished it, +his tribe would admire him. Saya would admire him. Everybody, observing +that he had found a new source of food, would even envy him until he +showed them how to do it too. Burl's fellow-humans were preoccupied with +the filling of their stomachs. The preservation of their lives came +second. The perpetuation of the race came a bad third in their +consideration. They were herded together in a leaderless group, coming +to the same hiding-place nightly only that they might share the finds of +the lucky and gather comfort from their numbers. They had no weapons. +Even Burl did not consider his spear a weapon. It was a tool for +stabbing something to eat only. Yet he did not think of it in that way +exactly. His tribe did not even consciously use tools. Sometimes they +used stones to crack open the limbs of great insects they found +incompletely devoured. They did not even carry rocks about with them for +that purpose. Only Burl had a vague idea of taking something to some +place to do something with it. It was unprecedented. Burl was at least +an atavar. He may have been a genius. + +But he was not a high-grade genius. Certainly not yet. + +He reached a spot from which he could look down into the water. He +looked behind and all about, listening, then lay down to stare into the +shallow depths. Once, a huge crayfish, a good eight feet long, moved +leisurely across his vision. Small fishes and even huge newts fled +before it. + +After a long time the normal course of underwater life resumed. The +wriggling caddis-flies in their quaintly ambitious houses reappeared. +Little flecks of silver swam into view--a school of tiny fish. Then a +larger fish appeared, moving slowly in the stream. + +Burl's eyes glistened; his mouth watered. He reached down with his long +weapon. It barely broke through the still surface of the water below. +Disappointment filled him, yet the nearness and apparent probability of +success spurred him on. + +He examined the shelf-fungi beneath him. Rising, he moved to a point +above them and tested one with his spear. It resisted. Burl felt about +tentatively with his foot, then dared to put his whole weight on the +topmost. It held firmly. He clambered down upon the lower ones, then +lay flat and peered over the edge. + +The large fish, fully as long as Burl's arm, swam slowly to and fro +beneath him. Burl had seen the former owner of this spear strive to +thrust it into his adversary. The beetle had been killed by the more +successful stab of a similar weapon. Burl had tried this upon +toadstools, practising with it. When the silver fish drifted close by +again, he thrust sharply downward. + +The spear seemed to bend when it entered the water. It missed its mark +by inches, much to Burl's astonishment. He tried again. Once more the +spear seemed diverted by the water. He grew angry with the fish for +eluding his efforts to kill it. + +This anger was as much the reaction of a throw-back to a less fearful +time as the idea of killing itself. But Burl scowled at the fish. +Repeated strokes had left it untouched. It was unwary. It did not even +swim away. + +Then it came to rest directly beneath his hand. He thrust directly +downward, with all his strength. This time the spear, entering +vertically, did not appear to bend, but went straight down. Its point +penetrated the scales of the swimming fish, transfixing the creature +completely. + +An uproar began with the fish wriggling desperately as Burl tried to +draw it up to his perch. In his excitement he did not notice a tiny +ripple a little distance away. The monster crayfish, attracted by the +disturbance, was coming back. + +The unequal combat continued. Burl hung on desperately to the end of his +spear. Then there was a tremor in the shelf-fungus on which he lay. It +yielded, collapsed, and fell into the stream with a mighty splash. Burl +went under, his eyes wide open, facing death. As he sank he saw the +gaping, horrible claws of the crustacean, huge enough to sever any of +Burl's limbs with a single snap. + +He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Only bubbles +floated up to the surface. He beat the unresisting fluid in a frenzy of +horror with his hands and feet as the colossal crayfish leisurely +approached. + +His arms struck a solid object. He clutched it convulsively. A second +later he had swung it between himself and the crustacean. He felt the +shock as the claws closed upon the cork-like fungus. Then he felt +himself drawn upward as the crayfish disgustedly released its hold and +the shelf-fungus floated slowly upward. Having given way beneath him, it +had been pushed below when he fell, only to rise within his reach just +when most needed. + +Burl's head popped above-water and he saw a larger bit of the fungus +floating nearby. Even less securely anchored to the river-bank than the +shelf to which he had trusted himself, it had broken away when he fell. +It was larger and floated higher. + +He seized it, crazily trying to climb up. It tilted under his weight and +very nearly overturned. He paid no heed. With desperate haste he clawed +and kicked until he could draw himself clear of the water. + +As he pulled himself up on the furry, orange-brown surface, a sharp blow +struck his foot. The crayfish, disappointed at finding nothing tasty in +the shelf-fungus, had made a languid stroke at Burl's foot wriggling in +the water. Failing to grasp the fleshy member, it went annoyedly away. + +Burl floated downstream, perched weaponless and alone upon a flimsy raft +of degenerate fungus; floated slowly down a stagnant river in which +death swam, between banks of sheer peril, past long reaches above which +death floated on golden wings. + +It was a long while before he recovered his self-possession. Then--and +this was an action individual in Burl: none of his tribesmen would have +thought of it--he looked for his spear. + +It was floating in the water, still transfixing the fish whose capture +had brought him to this present predicament. That silvery shape, so +violent before, now floated belly-up, all life gone. + +Burl's mouth watered as he gazed at the fish. He kept it in view +constantly while the unsteady craft spun slowly downstream in the +current. Lying flat he tried to reach out and grasp the end of the spear +when it circled toward him. + +The raft tilted, nearly capsizing. A little later he discovered that it +sank more readily on one side than the other. This was due, of course, +to the greater thickness of one side. The part next to the river-bank +had been thicker and was, therefore, more buoyant. + +He lay with his head above that side of the raft. It did not sink into +the water. Wriggling as far to the edge as he dared, he reached out and +out. He waited impatiently for the slower rotation of his float to +coincide with the faster motion of the speared fish. The spear-end came +closer, and closer.... He reached out--and the raft dipped dangerously. +But his fingers touched the spear-end. He got a precarious hold, pulled +it toward him. + +Seconds later he was tearing strips of scaly flesh from the side of the +fish and cramming the greasy stuff into his mouth with vast enjoyment. +He had lost the edible mushroom. It floated several yards away. He ate +contentedly none-the-less. + +He thought of the tribesfolk as he ate. This was more than he could +finish alone. Old Tama would coax him avidly for more than her share. +She had a few teeth left. She would remind him anxiously of her gifts of +food to him when he was younger. Dik and Tet--being boys--would +clamorously demand of him where he'd gotten it. How? He would give some +to Cori, who had younger children, and she would give them most of the +gift. And Saya--. + +Burl gloated especially over Saya's certain reaction. + +Then he realized that with every second he was being carried further +away from her. The nearer river-bank moved past him. He could tell by +the motion of the vividly colored growths upon the shore. + +Overhead, the sun was merely a brighter patch in the haze-filled sky. In +the pinkish light all about, Burl looked for the familiar and did not +find it, and dolefully knew that he was remote from Saya and going +farther all the time. + +There were a multitude of flying objects to be seen in the miasmatic +air. In the daytime a thin mist always hung above the lowlands. Burl had +never seen any object as much as three miles distant. The air was never +clear enough to permit it. But there was much to be seen even within the +limiting mist. + +Now and then a cricket or a grasshopper made its bullet-like flight from +one spot to another. Huge butterflies fluttered gaily above the silent, +loathesome ground. Bees lumbered anxiously about, seeking the +cross-shaped flowers of the giant cabbages which grew so rarely. +Occasionally a slender-waisted, yellow-bellied wasp flashed swiftly by. + +But Burl did not heed any of them. Sitting dismally upon his fungus +raft, floating in midstream, an incongruous figure of pink skin and +luridly-tinted loin-cloth, with a greasy dead fish beside him, he was +filled with a panicky anguish because the river carried him away from +the one girl of his tiny tribe whose glances roused a commotion in his +breast. + +The day wore on. Once, he saw a band of large amazon ants moving briskly +over a carpet of blue-green mould to raid the city of a species of black +ants. The eggs they would carry away from the city would hatch and the +small black creatures would become the slaves of the brigands who had +stolen them. + +Later, strangely-shaped, swollen branches drifted slowly into view. They +were outlined sharply against the steaming mist behind them. He knew +what they were: a hard-rinded fungus growing upon itself in peculiar +mockery of the trees which Burl had never seen because no trees could +survive the conditions of the lowland. + +Much later, as the day drew to an end, Burl ate again of the oily fish. +The taste was pleasant compared to the insipid mushrooms he usually ate. +Even though he stuffed himself, the fish was so large that the greater +part remained still uneaten. + +The spear was beside him. Although it had brought him trouble, he still +associated it with the food it had secured rather than the difficulty +into which it had led him. When he had eaten his fill, he picked it up +to examine again. The oil-covered point remained as sharp as before. + +Not daring to use it again from so unsteady a raft, he set it aside as +he stripped a sinew from his loin-cloth to hang the fish around his +neck. This would leave his arms free. Then he sat cross-legged, fumbling +with the spear as he watched the shores go past. + + + + +_2. A MAN ESCAPES_ + + +It was near to sunset. Burl had never seen the sun, so it did not occur +to him to think of the coming of night as the setting of anything. To +him it was the letting down of darkness from the sky. + +The process was invariable. Overhead there was always a thick and +unbroken bank of vapor which seemed featureless until sunset. Then, +toward the west, the brightness overhead turned orange and then pink, +while to the east it simply faded to a deeper gray. As nightfall +progressed, the red colorings grew deeper, moving toward mid-sky. +Ultimately, scattered blotches of darkness began to spot that reddening +sky as it grew darker in tone, going down toward that impossible +redness which is indistinguishable from black. It was slowly achieving +that redness. + +Today Burl watched as never before. On the oily surface of the river the +colors and shadings of dusk were reflected with incredible faithfulness. +The round tops of toadstools along the shore glowed pink. Dragonflies +glinted in swift and angular flight, the metallic sheen of their bodies +flashing in the redness. Great, yellow butterflies sailed lightly above +the stream. In every direction upon the water appeared the scrap-formed +boats of a thousand caddis-flies, floating at the surface while they +might. Burl could have thrust his hand down into their cavities to seize +the white worms nesting there. + +The bulk of a tardy bee droned heavily overhead. He saw the long +proboscis and the hairy hind-legs with their scanty load of pollen. The +great, multi-faceted eyes held an expression of stupid preoccupation. + +The crimson radiance grew dim and the color overhead faded toward black. +Now the stalks of ten thousand domed mushrooms lined the river-bank. +Beneath them spread fungi of all colors, from the rawest red to palest +blue, now all fading slowly to a monochromatic background as the +darkness deepened. + +The buzzing and fluttering and flapping of the insects of the day died +down. From a million hiding places there crept out--into the night--the +soft and furry bodies of great moths who preened themselves and smoothed +their feathery antennae before taking to the air. The strong-limbed +crickets set up their thunderous noise, grown gravely bass with the +increasing size of the noise-making organs. Then there began to gather +on the water those slender spirals of deeper mist which would presently +blanket the stream in fog. + +Night arrived. The clouds above grew wholly black. Gradually the languid +fall of large, warm raindrops--they would fall all through the +night--began. The edge of the stream became a place where disks of cold +blue flame appeared. + +The mushrooms on the river bank were faintly phosphorescent, shedding a +ghostly light over the ground below them. Here and there, lambent chilly +flames appeared in mid-air, drifting idly above the festering earth. On +other planets men call them "Will-o'-the-wisps," but on this planet +mankind had no name for them at all. + +Then huge, pulsating glows appeared in the blackness: fireflies that +Burl knew to be as long as his spear. They glided slowly through the +darkness over the stream, shedding intermittent light over Burl crouched +on his drifting raft. On the shore, too, tiny paired lights glowed +eagerly upward as the wingless females of the species crawled to where +their signals could be seen. And there were other glowing things. +Fox-fire burned in the night, consuming nothing. Even the water of the +river glowed with marine organisms--adapted to fresh water +here--contributing their mites of brilliance. + +The air was full of flying creatures. The beat of invisible wings came +through the night. Above, about, on every side the swarming, feverish +life of the insect world went on ceaselessly, while Burl rocked back and +forth upon his unstable raft, wanting to weep because he was being +carried farther away from Saya whom he could picture looking for him, +now, among the hidden, furtive members of the tribe. About him sounded +the discordant, machine-like mating cries of creatures trying to serve +life in the midst of death and the horrible noises of those who met +death and were devoured in the dark. + +Burl was accustomed to such tumult. But he was not accustomed to such +despair as he felt at being lost from Saya of the swift feet and white +teeth and shy smile. He lay disconsolate on his bobbing craft for the +greater part of the night. It was long past midnight when the raft +struck gently, swung, and then remained grounded upon a shallow in the +stream. + +When light came back in the morning, Burl gazed about him fearfully. He +was some twenty yards from the shore and thick greenish scum surrounded +his disintegrating vessel. The river had widened greatly until the +opposite bank was hidden in the morning mist, but the nearer shore +seemed firm and no more full of dangers than the territory inhabited by +Burl's tribe. + +He tested the depth of the water with his spear, struck by the multiple +usefulness of the weapon. The water was no more than ankle-deep. + +Shivering a little, Burl stepped down into the green scum and made for +the shore at top speed. He felt something soft clinging to his bare +foot. With a frantic rush he ran even faster and stumbled upon the shore +with horror not at his heels but on one. He stared down at his foot. A +shapeless, flesh-colored pad clung to the skin. As he watched, it +swelled visibly, the pink folds becoming a deeper shade. + +It was no more than a leech, the size of his palm, sharing in the +enlargement nearly all the insect and fungoid world had undergone, but +Burl did not know that. He thrust at it with the edge of his spear, +scraping it frantically away. As it fell off Burl stared in horror, +first at the blotch of blood on his foot, then at the thing writhing and +pulsating on the ground. He fled. + +A short while later he stumbled into one of the familiar toadstool +forests and paused, uncertainly. The towering toadstools were not +strange to Burl. He fell to eating. The sight of food always produced +hunger in him--a provision of nature to make up for the lack of any +instinct to store food away. In human beings the storage of food has to +be dictated by intellect. The lower orders of creatures are not required +to think. + +Even eating, though, Burl's heart was small within him. He was far from +his tribe and Saya. By the measurements of his remotest ancestors, no +more than forty miles separated them. But Burl did not think in such +terms. He'd never had occasion to do so. He'd come down the river to a +far land filled with unknown dangers. And he was alone. + +All about him was food, an excellent reason for gladness. But being +solitary was reason enough for distress. Although Burl was a creature to +whom reflection was normally of no especial value and, therefore, not +practiced in thought, this was a situation providing an emotional +paradox. A good fourth of the mushrooms in this particular forest were +edible. Burl should have gloated over this vast stock of food. But he +was isolated, alone; in particular, he was far away from Saya, +therefore, he should have wept. But he could not gloat because he was +away from Saya and he could not mourn because he was surrounded by food. + +He was subject to a stimulus to which apparently only humankind can +respond: an emotional dilemma. Other creatures can respond to objective +situations where there is the need to choose a course of action: flight +or fighting, hiding or pursuit. But only man can be disturbed by not +knowing which of two emotions to feel. Burl had reason to feel two +entirely different emotional states at the same time. He had to resolve +the paradox. The problem was inside him, not out. So he thought. + +He would bring Saya here! He would bring her and the tribe to this place +where there was food in vast quantity! + +Instantly pictures flooded into his mind. He could actually see old Jon, +his bald head naked as a mushroom itself, stuffing his belly with the +food which was so plentiful here. He imagined Cori feeding her children. +Tama's complaints stilled by mouthfuls of food. Tet and Dik, stuffed to +repletion, throwing scraps of foodstuff at each other. He pictured the +tribe zestfully feasting.--And Saya would be very glad. + +It was remarkable that Burl was able to think of his feelings instead of +his sensations. His tribesmen were closer to it than equally primitive +folk had been back on Earth, but they did not often engage in thought. +Their waking lives were filled with nerve-racked physical responses to +physical phenomena. They were hungry and they saw or smelled food: they +were alive and they perceived the presence of death. In the one case +they moved toward the sensory stimulus of food; in the other they fled +from the detected stimulus of danger. They responded immediately to the +world about them. Burl, for the first significant time in his life, had +responded to inner feelings. He had resolved conflicting emotions by +devising a purpose that would end their conflict. He determined to do +something because he wanted to and not because he had to. + +It was the most important event upon the planet in generations. + +With the directness of a child, or a savage, Burl moved to carry out his +purpose. The fish still slung about his neck scraped against his chest. +Fingering it tentatively, he got himself thoroughly greasy in the +process, but could not eat. Although he was not hungry now, perhaps Saya +was. He would give it to her. He imagined her eager delight, the image +reinforcing his resolve. He had come to this far place down the river +flowing sluggishly past this riotously-colored bank. To return to the +tribe he would go back up that bank, staying close to the stream. + +He was remarkably exultant as he forced a way through the awkward aisles +of the mushroom-forest, but his eyes and ears were still open for any +possible danger. Several times he heard the omnipresent clicking of ants +scavenging in the mushroom-glades, but they could be ignored. At best +they were short-sighted. If he dropped his fish, they would become +absorbed in it. There was only one kind of ant he needed to fear--the +army ant, which sometimes traveled in hordes of millions, eating +everything in their path. + +But there was nothing of the sort here. The mushroom forest came to an +end. A cheerful grasshopper munched delicately at some dainty it had +found--the barrel-sized young shoot of a cabbage-plant. Its hind legs +were bunched beneath it in perpetual readiness for flight. A monster +wasp appeared a hundred feet overhead, checked in its flight, and +plunged upon the luckless banqueter. + +There was a struggle, but it was brief. The grasshopper strained +terribly in the grip of the wasp's six barbed legs. The wasp's flexible +abdomen curved delicately. Its sting entered the jointed armor of its +prey just beneath the head with all the deliberate precision of a +surgeon's scalpel. A ganglion lay there; the wasp-poison entered it. The +grasshopper went limp. It was not dead, of course, simply paralyzed. +Permanently paralyzed. The wasp preened itself, then matter-of-factly +grasped its victim and flew away. The grasshopper would be incubator and +food-supply for an egg to be laid. Presently, in a huge mud castle, a +small white worm would feed upon the living, motionless victim of its +mother--who would never see it, or care, or remember.... + +Burl went on. + +The ground grew rougher; progress became painful. He clambered arduously +up steep slopes--all of forty or fifty feet high--and made his way +cautiously down to the farther sides. Once he climbed through a tangled +mass of mushrooms so closely placed and so small that he had to break +them apart with blows of his spear in order to pass. As they crumbled, +torrents of a fiery-red liquid showered down upon him, rolling off his +greasy breast and sinking into the ground. + +A strange self-confidence now took possession of Burl. He walked less +cautiously and more boldly. He had thought and he had struck something, +feeling the vainglorious self-satisfaction of a child. He pictured +himself leading his tribe to this place of very much food--he had no +real idea of the distance--and he strutted all alone amid the +nightmare-growths of the planet that had been forgotten. + +Presently he could see the river. He had climbed to the top of a +red-clay mound perhaps a hundred feet high. One side was crumbled where +the river overflowed. At some past flood-time the water had lapped at +the base of the cliff along which Burl was strutting. But now there was +a quarter-mile of space between himself and the water. And there was +something else in mid-air. + +The cliffside was thickly coated with fungi in a riotous confusion of +white and yellow and orange and green. From a point halfway up the cliff +the inch-thick cable of a spider-web stretched down to anchorage on the +ground below. There were other cables beyond this one and circling about +their radial pattern the snare-cords of the web formed a perfect +logarithmic spiral. + +Somewhere among the fungi of the cliffside the huge spider who had built +this web awaited the entrapment of prey. When some unfortunate creature +struggled frenziedly in its snare it would emerge. Until then it waited +in a motionless, implacable patience; utterly certain of victims, +utterly merciless to them. + +Burl strutted on the edge of the cliff, a rather foolish pink-skinned +creature with an oily fish slung about his neck and the draggled +fragment of moth's wing draping his middle. He waved the long shard of +beetle armor exultantly above his head. + +The activity was not very sensible. It served no purpose. But if Burl +was a genius among his fellows, then he still had a great deal to learn +before his genius would be effective. Now he looked down scornfully upon +the shining white trap below. He had struck a fish, killing it. When he +hit mushrooms they fell into pieces before him. Nothing could frighten +him! He would go to Saya and bring her to this land where food grew in +abundance. + +Sixty paces away from Burl, near the edge of the cliff, a shaft sank +vertically into the soil of the clay-mound. It was carefully rounded and +lined with silk. Thirty feet down, it enlarged itself into a chamber +where the engineer and proprietor of the shaft might rest. The top of +the hole was closed by a trap-door, stained with mud and earth to +imitate the surrounding soil. A sharp eye would have been needed to +detect the opening. But a keener eye now peered out from the crack at +its edge. + +That eye belonged to the proprietor. + +Eight hairy legs surrounded the body of the monster hanging motionless +at the top of the silk-lined shaft. Its belly was a huge misshapen globe +colored a dirty brown. Two pairs of mandibles stretched before its +mouth-parts; two eyes glittered in the semi-darkness of the burrow. Over +the whole body spread a rough and mangy fur. + +It was a thing of implacable malignance, of incredible ferocity. It was +the brown hunting spider, the American tarantula, enlarged here upon the +forgotten planet so that its body was two feet and more in diameter. Its +legs, outstretched, would cover a circle three yards across. The +glittering eyes followed as Burl strutted forward on the edge of the +cliff, puffed up with a sense of his own importance. + +Spread out below, the white snare of the spinning-spider impressed Burl +as amusing. He knew the spider wouldn't leave its web to attack him. +Reaching down, he broke off a bit of fungus growing at his feet. Where +he broke it away oozed a soupy liquid full of tiny maggots in a delirium +of feasting. Burl flung it down into the web, laughing as the black bulk +of the watchful spider swung down from its hiding place to investigate. + +The tarantula, peering from its burrow, quivered with impatience. Burl +drew nearer, gleefully using his spear as a lever to pry off bits of +trash to fall down the cliffside into the giant web. The spider below +moved leisurely from one spot to another, investigating each new missile +with its palpi and then ignoring it as lifeless and undesirable prey. + +Burl leaped and laughed aloud as a particularly large lump of putrid +fungus narrowly missed the black-and-silver shape below. Then-- + +The trap-door fell into place with a faint sound. Burl whirled about, +his laughter transformed instantly into a scream. Moving toward him +furiously, its eight legs scrambling, was the monster tarantula. Its +mandibles gaped wide; the poison fangs were unsheathed. It was thirty +paces away--twenty paces--ten. + +Eyes glittering, it leaped, all eight legs extended to seize the prey. + +Burl screamed again and thrust out his arms to ward off the creature. It +was pure blind horror. There was no genius in that gesture. Because of +sheer terror his grip upon the spear had become agonized. The +spear-point shot out and the tarantula fell upon it. Nearly a quarter of +the spear entered the body of the ferocious thing. + +Stuck upon the spear the spider writhed horribly, still striving to +reach the paralytically frozen Burl. The great mandibles clashed. +Furious bubbling noises came from it. The hairy legs clutched at his +arm. He cried out hoarsely in ultimate fear and staggered backward--and +the edge of the cliff gave way beneath him. + +He hurtled downward, still clutching the spear, incapable of letting go. +Even while falling the writhing thing still struggled maniacally to +reach him. Down through emptiness they fell together, Burl glassy-eyed +with panic. Then there was a strangely elastic crash and crackling. They +had fallen into the web at which Burl had been laughing so scornfully +only a little while before. + +Burl couldn't think. He only struggled insanely in the gummy coils of +the web. But the snare-cords were spiral threads, enormously elastic, +exuding impossibly sticky stuff, like bird-lime, from between twisted +constituent fibres. Near him--not two yards away--the creature he had +wounded thrashed and fought to reach him, even while shuddering in +anguish. + +Burl had reached the absolute limit of panic. His arms and breast were +greasy from the oily fish; the sticky web did not adhere to them. But +his legs and body were inextricably tangled by his own frantic +struggling in the gummy and adhesive elastic threads. They had been +spread for prey. He was prey. + +He paused in his blind struggle, gasping from pure exhaustion. Then he +saw, not five yards away, the silvery-and-black monster he had mocked so +recently now patiently waiting for him to cease his struggles. The +tarantula and the man were one to its eyes--one struggling thing that +had fallen opportunely into its trap. They were moving but feebly, now. +The web-spider advanced delicately, swinging its huge bulk nimbly, +paying out a silken cable behind it as it approached. + +Burl's arms were free; he waved them wildly, shrieking at the monster. +The spider paused. Burl's moving arms suggested mandibles that might +wound. + +Spiders take few chances. This one drew near cautiously, then stopped. +Its spinnerets became busy and with one of its eight legs, used like an +arm, it flung a sheet of gummy silk impartially over the tarantula and +the man. + +Burl fought against the descending shroud. He strove to thrust it away, +futilely. Within minutes he was completely covered in a coarse silken +fabric that hid even the light from his eyes. He and his enemy, the +monstrous tarantula, were beneath the same covering. The tarantula moved +feebly. + +The shower ceased. The web-spider had decided they were helpless. Then +Burl felt the cables of the web give slightly as the spider approached +to sting and suck the juices from its prey. + +The web yielded gently. Burl froze in an ecstasy of horror. But the +tarantula still writhed in agony upon the spear piercing it. It clashed +its jaws, shuddering upon the horny shaft. + +Burl waited for the poison-fangs to be thrust into him. He knew the +process. He had seen the leisurely fashion in which the web-spider +delicately stung its victim, then withdrew to wait with horrible +patience for the poison to take effect. When the victim no longer +struggled, it drew near again to suck out the juices first from one +joint or limb and then from another, leaving a creature once vibrant +with life a shrunken, withered husk, to be flung from the web at +nightfall. + +The bloated monstrosity now moved meditatively about the double object +swathed in silk. Only the tarantula stirred. Its bulbous abdomen stirred +the concealing shroud. It throbbed faintly as it still struggled with +the spear in its vitals. The irregularly rounded projection was an +obvious target for the web-spider. It moved quickly forward. With fine, +merciless precision, it stung. + +The tarantula seemed to go mad with pain. Its legs struck out +purposelessly, in horrible gestures of delirious suffering. Burl +screamed as a leg touched him. He struggled no less wildly. + +His arms and head were enclosed by the folds of silk, but not glued to +it because of the grease. Clutching at the cords he tried desperately to +draw himself away from his deadly neighbor. The threads wouldn't break, +but they did separate. A tiny opening appeared. + +One of the tarantula's horribly writhing legs touched him again. With a +strength born of utter panic he hauled himself away and the opening +enlarged. Another lunge and Burl's head emerged into the open air. He +was suspended twenty feet above the ground, which was almost carpeted +with the chitinous remains of past victims of this same web. + +Burl's head and breast and arms were free. The fish slung over his +shoulder had shed its oil upon him impartially. But the lower part of +his body was held firm by the viscous gumminess of the web-spider's +cord. It was vastly more adhesive than any bird-lime ever made by men. + +He hung in the little window for a moment, despairing. Then he saw the +bulk of his captor a little distance away, waiting patiently for its +poison to work and its prey to cease struggling. The tarantula was no +more than shuddering now. Soon it would be quite still and the +black-bellied creature would approach for its meal. + +Burl withdrew his head and thrust desperately at the sticky stuff about +his loins and legs. The oil upon his hands kept them free. The silk +shroud gave a little. Burl grasped at the thought as at a straw. He +grasped the fish and tore it, pushing frantically at his own body with +the now-rancid, scaly, odorous mass. He scraped gum from his legs with +the fish, smearing the rancid oils all over them in the process. + +He felt the web tremble again. To the spider Burl's movements meant that +its poison had not taken full effect. Another sting seemed to be +necessary. This time it would not insert its sting into the quiescent +tarantula, but where there was still life. It would send its venom into +Burl. + +He gasped and drew himself toward his window as if he would have pulled +his legs from his body. His head emerged. His shoulders--half his body +was out of the hole. + +The great spider surveyed him and made ready to cast more of its silken +stuff upon him. The spinnerets became active. A leg gathered it up-- + +The sticky stuff about Burl's feet gave way. + +He shot out of the opening and fell heavily, sprawling upon the earth +below and crashing into the shrunken shell of a flying beetle that had +blundered into the snare and not escaped as he had done. + +Burl rolled over and over and then sat up. An angry, foot-long ant stood +before him, its mandibles extended threateningly, while a shrill +stridulation filled the air. + +In ages past, back on Earth--where most ants were to be measured in +fractions of an inch--the scientists had debated gravely whether their +tribe possessed a cry. They believed that certain grooves upon the body +of the insect, like those upon the great legs of the cricket, might be +the means of making a sound too shrill for human ears to catch. It was +greatly debated, but evidence was hard to obtain. + +Burl did not need evidence. He knew that the stridulation was caused by +the insect before him, though he had never wondered how it was produced. +The cry was emitted to summon other ants from its city to help it in +difficulty or good fortune. + +Harsh clickings sounded fifty or sixty feet away; comrades were coming. +And while only army ants were normally dangerous, any tribe of ants +could be formidable when aroused. It was overwhelming enough to pull +down and tear a man to shreds as a pack of infuriated fox-terriers might +do on Earth. + +Burl fled without further delay, nearly colliding with one of the web's +anchor-cables. Then he heard the shrill outcry subside. The ant, +short-sighted as all its kind, no longer felt threatened. It went +peacefully about the business Burl had interrupted. Presently it found +some edible carrion among the debris from the spider-web and started +triumphantly back to its city. + +Burl sped on for a few hundred yards and then stopped. He was shaken and +dazed. For the moment, he was as timid and fearful as any other man in +his tribe. Presently he would realize the full meaning of the +unparalleled feat he had performed in escaping from the giant spider web +while cloaked with folds of gummy silk. It was not only unheard-of; it +was unimaginable! But Burl was too shaken to think of it now. + +Rather quaintly, the first sensation that forced itself into his +consciousness was that his feet hurt. The gluey stuff from the web still +stuck to his soles, picking up small objects as he went along. Old, +ant-gnawed fragments of insect armor pricked him so persistently, even +through his toughened foot-soles, that he paused to scrape them away, +staring fearfully about all the while. After a dozen steps more he was +forced to stop again. + +It was this nagging discomfort, rather than vanity or an emergency which +caused Burl to discover--imagine--blunder into a new activity as +epoch-making as anything else he had done. His brain had been uncommonly +stimulated in the past twenty-some hours. It had plunged him into at +least one predicament because of his conceiving the idea of stabbing +something, but it had also allowed him escape from another even more +terrifying one just now. In between it had led to the devising of a +purpose--the bringing of Saya here--though that decision was not so +firmly fixed as it had been before the encounter with the web-spider. +Still, it had surely been reasoning of a sort that told him to grease +his body with the fish. Otherwise he would now be following the +tarantula as a second course for the occupant of the web. + +Burl looked cautiously all about him. It seemed to be quite safe. Then, +quite deliberately, he sat down to think. It was the first time in his +life that he had ever deliberately contemplated a problem with the idea +of finding an answer to it. And the notion of doing such a thing was +epoch-making--on this planet! + +He examined his foot. The sharp edges of pebbles and the remnants of +insect-armor hurt his feet when he walked. They had done so ever since +he had been born, but never before had his feet been sticky, so that the +irritation from one object persisted for more than a step. He carefully +picked away each sharp-pointed fragment, one by one. Partly coated with +the half-liquid gum, they even tended to cling to his fingers, except +where the oil was thick. + +Burl's reasoning had been of the simplest sort. He had contemplated a +situation--not deliberately but because he had to--and presently his +mind showed him a way out of it. It was a way specifically suited to the +situation. Here he faced something different. Presently he applied the +answer of one problem to a second problem. Oil on his body had let him +go free of things that would stick to him. Here things stuck to his +feet; so he oiled them. + +And it worked. Burl strode away, almost--but not completely--untroubled +by the bothersome pebbles and bits of discarded armor. Then he halted to +regard himself with astonished appreciation. He was still thirty-five +miles from his tribe; he was naked and unarmed, utterly ignorant of wood +and fire and weapons other than the one he had lost. But he paused to +observe with some awe that he was very wonderful indeed. + +He wanted to display himself. But his spear was gone. So Burl found it +necessary to think again. And the remarkable thing about it was that he +succeeded. + +In a surprisingly brief time he had come up with a list of answers. He +was naked, so he would find garments for himself. He was weaponless: he +would find himself a spear. He was hungry and he would seek food. Since +he was far from his tribe, he would go to them. And this was, in a +fashion, quite obviously thought; but it was not oblivious on the +forgotten planet because it had been futile--up to now. The importance +of such thought in the scheme of things was that men had not been +thinking even so simply as this, living only from minute to minute. Burl +was fumbling his way into a habit of thinking from problem to problem. +And that was very important indeed. + +Even in the advanced civilization of other planets, few men really used +their minds. The great majority of people depended on machines not only +for computations but decisions as well. Any decisions not made by +machines most men left to their leaders. Burl's tribesfolk thought +principally with their stomachs, making few if any decisions on any +other basis--though they did act, very often, under the spur of fear. +Fear-inspired actions, however, were not thought out. Burl was thinking +out his actions. + +There would be consequences. + +He faced upstream and began to move again, slowly and warily, his eyes +keenly searching out the way ahead, ears alert for the slightest sound +of danger. Gigantic butterflies, riotous in coloring, fluttered overhead +through the hazy air. Sometimes a grasshopper hurtled from one place to +another like a projectile, its transparent wings beating frantically. +Now and then a wasp sped by, intent upon its hunting, or a bee droned +heavily alone, anxious and worried, striving to gather pollen in a +nearly flowerless world. + +Burl marched on. From somewhere far behind him came a very faint sound. +It was a shrill noise, but very distant indeed. Absorbed in immediate +and nearby matters, Burl took no heed. He had the limited local +viewpoint of a child. What was near was important and what was distant +could be ignored. Anything not imminent still seemed to him +insignificant--and he was preoccupied. + +The source of this sound was important, however. Its origin was a myriad +of clickings compounded into a single noise. It was, in fact, the +far-away but yet perceptible sound of army ants on the march. The +locusts of Earth were very trivial nuisances compared to the army ants +of this planet. + +Locusts, in past ages on Earth, had eaten all green things. Here in the +lowlands were only giant cabbages and a few rank, tenacious growths. +Grasshoppers were numerous here, but could never be thought of as a +plague; they were incapable of multiplying to the size of locust hordes. +Army ants, however.... + +But Burl did not notice the sound. He moved forward briskly though +cautiously, searching the fungus-landscape for any sign of garments, +food, and weapons. He confidently expected to find all of them within a +short distance. Indeed, he did find food very soon. No more than a half +mile ahead he found a small cluster of edible fungi. + +With no special elation, Burl broke off a food supply from the largest +of them. Naturally, he took more than he could possibly eat at one time. +He went on, nibbling at a big piece of mushroom abstractedly, past a +broad plain, more than a mile across and broken into odd little hillocks +by gradually ripening mushrooms which were unfamiliar to him. In several +places the ground had been pushed aside by rounded objects, only the +tips showing. Blood-red hemispheres seemed to be forcing themselves +through the soil, so they might reach the outer air. Careful not to +touch any of them, Burl examined the hillocks curiously as he entered +the plain. They were strange, and to Burl most strange things meant +danger. In any event, he had two conscious purposes now. He wanted +garments and weapons. + +Above the plain a wasp hovered, dangling a heavy object beneath its +black belly across which ran a single red band. It was the gigantic +descendant of the hairy sand-wasp, differing only in size from its +far-away, remote ancestors on Earth. It was taking a paralyzed gray +caterpillar to its burrow. Burl watched it drop down with the speed and +sureness of an arrow, pull aside a heavy, flat stone, and descend into +the burrow with its caterpillar-prey momentarily laid aside. + +It vanished underground into a vertical shaft dug down forty feet or +more. It evidently inspected the refuge. Reappearing, it vanished into +the hole again, dragging the gray worm after it. Burl, marching on over +the broad plain spotted with some eruptive disease, did not know what +passed below. But he did observe the wasp emerge again to scratch dirt +and stones previously excavated laboriously back into the shaft until it +was full. + +The wasp had paralyzed a caterpillar, taken it into the ready-prepared +burrow, laid an egg upon it, and sealed up the entrance. In time the egg +would hatch into a grub barely the size of Burl's forefinger. And the +grub, deep underground, would feed upon the living but helpless +caterpillar until it waxed large and fat. Then it would weave itself a +cocoon and sleep a long sleep, only to wake as a wasp and dig its way +out to the open air. + +Reaching the farther side of the plain, Burl found himself threading the +aisles of a fungus forest in which the growths were misshapen travesties +of the trees which could not live here. Bloated yellow limbs branched +off from rounded swollen trunks. Here and there a pear-shaped puffball, +Burl's height and half his height again, waited until a chance touch +should cause it to shoot upward a curling puff of infinitely fine dust. + +He continued to move with caution. There were dangers here, but he went +forward steadily. He still held a great mass of edible mushroom under +one arm and from time to time broke off a fragment, chewing it +meditatively. But always his eyes searched here and there for threats of +harm. + +Behind him the faint, shrill outcry had risen only slightly in volume. +It was still too far away to attract his notice. Army ants, however, +were working havoc in the distance. By thousands and millions, myriads +of them advanced across the fungoid soil. They clambered over every +eminence. They descended into every depression. Their antennae waved +restlessly. Their mandibles were extended threateningly. The ground was +black with them, each one more than ten inches long. + +A single such creature, armored and fearless as it was, could be +formidable enough to an unarmed and naked man like Burl. The better part +of discretion would be avoidance. But numbering in the thousands and +millions, they were something which could not be avoided. They advanced +steadily and rapidly; the chorus of shrill stridulations and clickings +marking their progress. + +Great, inoffensive caterpillars crawling over the huge cabbages heard +the sound of their coming, but were too stupid to flee. The black +multitudes blanketed the rank vegetables. Tiny, voracious jaws tore at +the flaccid masses of greasy flesh. + +The caterpillars strove to throw off their assailants by writhings and +contortions--uselessly. The bees fought their entrance into the monster +hives with stings and wing-beats. Moths took to the air in daylight with +dazzled, blinded eyes. But nothing could withstand the relentless hordes +of small black things that reeked of formic acid and left the ground +behind them empty of life. + +Before the horde was a world of teeming life, where mushrooms and other +fungi fought with thinning numbers of cabbages and mutant earth-weeds +for a foothold. Behind the black multitude was--nothing. Mushrooms, +cabbages, bees, wasps, crickets, grubs--every living thing that could +not flee before the creeping black tide reached it was lost, torn to +bits by tiny mandibles. + +Even the hunting spiders and tarantulas fell before the black host. They +killed many in their desperate self-defense, but the army ants could +overwhelm anything--anything at all--by sheer numbers and ferocity. +Killed or wounded ants served as food for their sound comrades. Only the +web spiders sat unmoved and immovable in their collossal snares, secure +in the knowledge that their gummy webs could not be invaded along the +slender supporting cables. + + + + +_3. THE PURPLE HILLS_ + + +The army ants flowed over the ground like a surging, monstrous, inky +tide. Their vanguard reached the river and recoiled. Burl was perhaps +five miles away when they changed their course. The change was made +without confusion, the leaders somehow communicating the altered line of +march to those behind them. + +Back on Earth, scientists had gravely debated the question of how ants +conveyed ideas to each other. Honeybees, it was said, performed +elaborate ritual dances to exchange information. Ants, it had been +observed, had something less eccentric. A single ant, finding a bit of +booty too big for it to manage alone, would return to its city to secure +the help of others. From that fact men had deduced that a language of +gestures made with crossed antennae must exist. + +Burl had no theories. He merely knew facts, but he did know that ants +could and did pass information to one another. Now, however, he moved +cautiously along toward the sleeping-place of his tribe in complete +ignorance of the black blanket of living creatures spreading over the +ground behind him. + +A million tragedies marked the progress of the insect army. There was a +tiny colony of mining bees, their habits unchanged despite their greater +size, here on the forgotten planet. A single mother, four feet long, had +dug a huge gallery with some ten offshooting cells, in which she had +laid her eggs and fed her grubs with hard-gathered pollen. The grubs had +waxed fat and large, become bees, and laid eggs in their turn within the +same gallery their mother had dug out for them. + +Ten bulky insects now foraged busily to feed their grubs within the +ancestral home, while the founder of the colony had grown draggled and +wingless with the passing of time. Unable to bring in food, herself, the +old bee became the guardian of the hive. She closed the opening with her +head, making a living barrier within the entrance. She withdrew only to +grant admission or exit to the duly authorized members,--her daughters. + +The ancient concierge of the underground dwelling was at her post when +the wave of army ants swept over. Tiny, evil-smelling feet trampled upon +her and she emerged to fight with mandible and sting for the sanctity of +her brood. Within moments she was a shaggy mass of biting ants. They +rent and tore at her chitinous armor. But she fought on madly, sounding +a buzzing alarm to the colonists yet within. + +They came out, fighting as they came: ten huge bees, each four to five +feet long and fighting with legs and jaws, with wing and mandible, and +with all the ferocity of so many tigers. But the small ants covered +them, snapping at their multiple eyes, biting at the tender joints in +their armour,--and sometimes releasing the larger prey to leap upon an +injured comrade, wounded by the monster they battled together. + +Such a fight, however, could have but one end. Struggle as the bees +might, they were powerless against their un-numbered assailants. They +were being devoured even as they fought. And before the last of the ten +was down the underground gallery had been gutted both of the stored food +brought by the adult defenders and the last morsels of what had been +young grubs, too unformed to do more than twitch helplessly, +inoffensively, as they were torn to shreds. + +When the army ants went on there were merely an empty tunnel and a few +fragments of tough armor, unappetizing even to the ants. + +Burl heard them as he meditatively inspected the scene of a tragedy of +not long before. The rent and scraped fragments of a great beetle's +shiny casing lay upon the ground. A greater beetle had come upon the +first and slain him. Burl regarded the remains of the meal. + +Three or four minims, little ants barely six inches long, foraged +industriously among the bits. A new ant-city was to be formed and the +queen lay hidden half a mile away. These were the first hatchlings. They +would feed their younger kindred until they grew large enough to take +over the great work of the ant-city. Burl ignored the minims. He +searched for a weapon of some sort. Behind him the clicking, +high-pitched roar of the horde of army ants increased in volume. + +He turned away disgustedly. The best thing he could find in the way of +a weapon was a fiercely-toothed hind-leg. When he picked it up an angry +whine rose from the ground. One of the minims had been struggling to +detach a morsel of flesh from the leg-joint. Burl had snatched the +tidbit from him. + +The little creature was surely no more than half a foot long, but it +advanced angrily upon Burl, shrilling a challenge. He struck with the +beetle's leg and crushed the ant. Two of the other minims appeared, +attracted by the noise the first had made. They discovered the crushed +body of their fellow, unceremoniously dismembered it, and bore it away +in triumph. + +Burl went on, swinging the toothed limb in his hand. The sound behind +him became a distant whispering, high-pitched and growing steadily +nearer. The army ants swept into a mushroom forest and the yellow, +umbrella-like growths soon swarmed with the black creatures. + +A great bluebottle fly, shining with a metallic lustre, stood beneath a +mushroom on the ground. The mushroom was infected with maggots which +exuded a solvent pepsin that liquefied the firm white meat. They swam +ecstatically in the liquid gruel, some of which dripped and dripped to +the ground. The bluebottle was sipping the dark-colored liquid through +its long proboscis, quivering with delight as it fed on the noisomeness. + +Burl drew near and struck. The fly collapsed in a quivering heap. Burl +stood over it for an instant and pondered. + +The army ants were nearer, now. They swarmed down into a tiny valley, +rushing into and through a little brook over which Burl had leaped. +Since ants can remain underwater for a long time without drowning, the +small stream was not even dangerous. Its current did sweep some of them +away. A great many of them, however, clung together until they chocked +its flow by the mass of their bodies, the main force marching across the +bridge they constituted. + +The ants reached a place about a quarter of a mile to the left of Burl's +line of march, perhaps a mile from the spot where he stood over the dead +bluebottle. There was an expanse of some acres in which the giant, rank +cabbages had so far succeeded in their competition with the world of +fungi. The pale, cross-shaped flowers of the cabbages formed food for +many bees. The leaves fed numberless grubs and worms. Under the +fallen-away dead foliage--single leaves were twenty feet across at their +largest--crickets hid and fed. + +The ant-army flowed into this space, devouring every living thing it +encountered. A terrible din arose. The crickets hurtled away in erratic +leapings. They shot aimlessly in any direction. More than half of them +landed blindly in the carpeting of clicking black bodies which were the +ants from whose vanguard they had fled. Their blind flight had no effect +save to give different individuals the opportunity to seize them as they +fell and instantly begin to devour them. As they were torn to fragments, +horrible screamings reached Burl's ears. + +A single such cry of agony would not have attracted Burl's attention. He +lived in a world of nightmare horror. But a chorus of creatures in +torment made him look up. This was no minor horror. Something wholesale +was in progress. He jerked his head about to see what it was. + +A wild stretch of sickly yellow fungus was interspersed here and there +with a squat toadstool, or a splash of vivid color where one of the many +rusts had found a foothold. To the left a group of branched fungoids +clustered in silent mockery of a true forest. Burl saw the faded green +of the cabbages. + +With the sun never shining on the huge leaves save through the +cloud-bank overhead, the cabbages were not vivid. There were even some +mouldy yeasts of a brighter green and slime much more luridly tinted. +Even so, the cabbages were the largest form of true vegetation Burl had +ever seen. The nodding white cruciform flowers stood out plainly +against the yellowish, pallid green of the leaves. But as Burl gazed at +them, the green slowly became black. + +Three great grubs, in lazy contentment, were eating ceaselessly of the +cabbages on which they rested. Suddenly first one and then another began +to jerk spasmodically. Burl saw that around each of them a rim of black +had formed. Then black motes milled all over them. + +The grubs became black--covered with biting, devouring ants. The +cabbages became black. The frenzied contortions of the grubs told of the +agonies they underwent as they were literally devoured alive. And then +Burl saw a black wave appear at the nearer edge of the stretch of yellow +fungus. A glistening, living flood flowed forward over the ground with a +roar of clickings and a persistent overtone of shrill stridulations. + +Burl's scalp crawled. He knew what this meant. And he did not pause to +think. With a gasp of pure panic he turned and fled, all intellectual +preoccupations forgotten. + +The black tide came on after him. + +He flung away the edible mushroom he had carried under his arm. Somehow, +though, he clung to the sharp-toothed club as he darted between tangled +masses of fungus, ignoring now the dangers that ordinarily called for +vast caution. + +Huge flies appeared. They buzzed about him loudly. Once he was struck on +the shoulder by one of them--at least as large as his hand--and his skin +torn by its swiftly vibrating wings. + +He brushed it away and sped on. But the oil with which he was partly +covered had turned rancid, now, and the fetid odor attracted them. There +were half a dozen--then a dozen creatures the size of pheasants, droning +and booming as they kept pace with his wild flight. + +A weight pressed onto his head. It doubled. Two of the disgusting +creatures had settled upon his oily hair to sip the stuff through their +hairy feeding-tubes. Burl shook them off with his hand and raced madly +on, his ears attuned to the sounds of the ants behind him. + +That clicking roar continued, but in Burl's ears it was almost drowned +out by the noise made by the halo of flies accompanying him. Their +buzzing had deepened in pitch with the increase in size of all their +race. It was now the note close to the deepest bass tone of an organ. +Yet flies--though greatly enlarged on the forgotten planet--had not +become magnified as much as some of the other creatures. There were no +great heaps of putrid matter for them to lay their eggs in. The ants +were busy scavengers, carting away the debris of tragedies in the insect +world long before it could acquire the gamey flavor beloved of +fly-maggots. Only in isolated spots were the flies really numerous. In +such places they clustered in clouds. + +Such a cloud began to form about Burl as he fled. It seemed as though a +miniature whirlwind kept pace with him--a whirlwind composed of furry, +revolting bodies and multi-faceted eyes. Fleeing, Burl had to swing his +club before him to clear the way. Almost every stroke was interrupted by +an impact against some thinly-armored body which collapsed with the +spurting of reddish liquid. + +Then an anguish as of red-hot iron struck upon Burl's back. One of the +stinging flies had thrust its sharp-tipped proboscis into his flesh to +suck the blood. Burl uttered a cry and ran full-tilt into the stalk of a +blackened, draggled toadstool. + +There was a curious crackling as of wet punk. The toadstool collapsed +upon itself with a strange splashing sound. A great many creatures had +laid their eggs in it, until now it was a seething mass of corruption +and ill-smelling liquid. + +When the toadstool crashed to the ground, it crumbled into a dozen +pieces, spattering the earth for yards all about with stinking stuff in +which tiny, headless maggots writhed convulsively. + +The deep-toned buzzing of the flies took on a note of solemn +satisfaction. They settled down upon this feast. Burl staggered to his +feet and darted off again. Now he was nothing but a minor attraction to +the flies, only three or four bothering to come after him. The others +settled by the edges of the splashing fluid, quickly absorbed in an +ecstasy of feasting. The few still hovering about his head, Burl +killed,--but he did not have to smash them all. The remaining few +descended to feast on their fallen comrades twitching feebly at his +feet. + +He ran on and passed beneath the wide-spreading leaves of an isolated +giant cabbage. A great grasshopper crouched on the ground, its +tremendous radially-opening jaws crunching the rank vegetation. Half a +dozen great worms ate steadily of the leaves that supported them. One +had swung itself beneath an overhanging leaf--which would have thatched +houses for men--and was placidly anchoring itself for the spinning of a +cocoon in which to sleep the sleep of metamorphosis. + +A mile away, the great black tide of army ants advanced relentlessly. +The great cabbage, the huge grasshopper, and all the stupid caterpillars +on the leaves would presently be covered with small, black demons. The +cocoon would never be spun. The caterpillars would be torn into +thousands of furry fragments and devoured. The grasshopper would strike +out with his terrific, unguided strength, crushing its assailants with +blows of its great hind-legs and powerful jaws. But it would die, making +terrible sounds of torments as the ants consumed it piecemeal. + +The sound of the ants' advance overwhelmed all other noises now. Burl +ran madly, his breath coming in great gasps, his eyes wide with panic. +Alone of the world about him, he knew the danger that followed him. The +insects he passed went about their business with that terrifying, +abstracted efficiency found only in the insect world. + +Burl's heart pounded madly from his running. The breath whistled in his +nostrils--and behind him the flood of army ants kept pace. They came +upon the feasting flies. Some took to the air and escaped. Others were +too absorbed in their delicious meal. The twitching maggots, stranded by +the scattering of their soupy broth, were torn to shreds and eaten. The +flies who were seized vanished into tiny maws. And the serried ranks of +ants moved on. + +Burl could hear nothing else, now, but the clickings of their limbs and +the stridulating challenges and cross-challenges they uttered. Now and +then another sound pierced the noises made by the ants themselves: a +cricket, perhaps, seized and dying, uttering deep-bass cries of agony. + +Before the horde there was a busy world which teemed with life. +Butterflies floated overhead on lazy wings; grubs waxed fat and huge; +crickets feasted; great spiders sat quietly in their lairs, waiting with +implacable patience for prey to fall into the trap-doors and snares; +great beetles lumbered through the mushroom forests, seeking food and +making love in monstrous, tragic fashion. + +Behind the wide front of the army ants was--chaos. Emptiness. +Desolation. All life save that of the army ants was exterminated, though +some bewildered flying creatures still fluttered helplessly over the +silent landscape. Yet even behind the army ants little bands of +stragglers from the horde marched busily here and there, seeking some +trace of life that had been overlooked by the main body. + +Burl put forth his last ounce of strength. His limbs trembled. His +breathing was agony. Sweat stood out upon his forehead. He ran for his +life with the desperation of one who knows that death is at his heels. +He ran as if his continued existence among the million tragedies of the +single day were the purpose for which the universe had been created. + +There was redness in the west and in the cloud-bank overhead. To the +east gray sky became a deeper gray--much deeper. It was not yet time for +the creatures of the day to seek their hiding-places, nor for the +night-insects to come forth. But in many secret spots there were vague +and sleepy stirrings. + +Heedless of the approaching darkness Burl sped over an open space a +hundred yards across. A thicket of beautifully golden mushrooms barred +his way. Danger lay there. He dogged aside and saw in the gray dusk a +glistening sheet of white, barely a yard above the ground. It was the +web of the morning-spider which, on Earth, was noted only in hedges and +such places when the dew of earliest dawn exposed it as a patternless +plate of diamond-dust. There were anchor-cables, of course, but no +geometry. Tidy housewives--also on Earth--used to mop it out of corners +as a filmy fabric of irritating gossamer. On the forgotten planet it was +a net with strength and bird-lime qualities that increased day by day, +as its spinner moved restlessly over the surface, always trailing sticky +cord behind itself. + +Burl had no choice but to avoid it, even though he lost ground to the +ant-horde roaring behind him. And night was definitely on the way. It +was inconceivable that a human should travel in the lowlands after dark. +It literally could not be done over the normal nightmare terrain. Burl +had not only to escape the army ants, but find a hiding-place quickly if +he was to see tomorrow's light. But he could not think so far ahead, +just now. + +He blundered through a screen of puffballs that shot dusty powder toward +the sky. Ahead, a range of strangely colored hills came into +view--purple, green, black and gold--melting into each other and +branching off, inextricably mingled. They rose to a height of perhaps +sixty or seventy feet. A curious grayish haze had gathered above them. +It seemed to be a layer of thin vapor, not like mist or fog, clinging to +certain parts of the hills, rising slowly to coil and gather into an +indefinitely thicker mass above the ridges. + +The hills themselves were not geological features, but masses of fungus +that had grown and cannibalized, piling up upon themselves to the +thickness of carboniferous vegetation. Over the face of the hills grew +every imaginable variety of yeast and mould and rust. They grew within +and upon themselves, forming freakish conglomerations that piled up into +a range of hills, stretching across the lunatic landscape for miles. + +Burl blundered up the nearest slope. Sometimes the surface was a hard +rind that held him up. Sometimes his feet sank--perhaps inches, perhaps +to mid-leg. He scrambled frantically. Panting, gasping, staggering from +the exhaustion of moving across the fungus quicksand, he made his way to +the top of the first hill, plunged down into a little valley on the +farther side, and up another slope. He left a clear trail behind him of +disturbed and scurrying creatures that had inevitably found a home in +the mass of living stuff. Small sinuous centipedes scuttled here and +there, roused by his passage. At the bottom of his footprints writhed +fat white worms. Beetles popped into view and vanished again.... + +A half mile across the range and Burl could go no farther. He stumbled +and fell and lay there, gasping hoarsely. Overhead the gray sky had +become a deep-red which was rapidly melting into that redness too deep +to be seen except as black. But there was still some light from the +west. + +Burl sobbed for breath in a little hollow, his sharp-toothed club still +clasped in his hands. Something huge, with wings like sails, soared in +silhouette against the sunset. Burl lay motionless, breathing in great +gasps, his limbs refusing to lift him. + +The sound of the army ants continued. At last, above the crest of the +last hillock he had surmounted, two tiny glistening antennae appeared, +then the small, deadly shape of an army ant. The forerunner of its +horde, it moved deliberately forward, waving its antennae ceaselessly. +It made its way toward Burl, tiny clickings coming from its limbs. + +A little wisp of vapor swirled toward the ant. It was the vapor that had +gathered over the whole range of hills as a thin, low cloud. It +enveloped the ant which seemed to be thrown into a strange convulsion, +throwing itself about, legs moving aimlessly. If it had been an animal +instead of an insect, it would have choked and gasped. But ants breathe +through air-holes in their abdomens. It writhed helplessly on the spongy +stuff across which it had been moving. + +Burl was conscious of a strange sensation. His body felt remarkably +warm. It felt hot. It was an unparalleled sensation, because Burl had no +experience of fire or the heat of the sun. The only warmth he had ever +known was when huddling together with his tribesmen in some hiding-place +to avoid the damp chill of the night. + +Then, the heat of their breath and flesh helped to combat discomfort. +But this was a fiercer heat. It was intolerable. Burl moved his body +with a tremendous effort and for a moment the fungus soil was cool +beneath him. Then the sensation of hotness began again and increased +until Burl's skin was reddened and inflamed. + +The tenuous vapor, too, seemed to swirl his way. It made his lungs smart +and his eyes water. He still breathed in painful gasps, but even that +short period of rest had done him some good. But it was the heat that +drove him to his feet again. He crawled painfully to the crest of the +next hill. He looked back. + +This was the highest hill he had come upon and he could see most of the +purple range in the deep, deep dusk. Now he was more than halfway +through the hills. He had barely a quarter-mile to go, northward. But +east and west the range of purple hills was a ceaseless, undulating mass +of lifts and hollows, of ridges and spurs of all imaginable colorings. + +And at the tips of most of them were wisps of curling gray. + +From his position he could see a long stretch of the hills not hidden by +the surrounding darkness. Back along the way he had come, the army ants +now swept up into the range of hills. Scouts and advance-guard parties +scurried here and there. They stopped to devour the creatures inhabiting +the surface layers. But the main body moved on inexorably. + +The hills, though, were alive, not upheavals of the ground but festering +heaps of insanely growing fungus, hollowed out in many places by +tunnels, hiding-places, and lurking-places. These the ants invaded. They +swept on, devouring everything.... + +Burl leaned heavily upon his club and watched dully. He could run no +more. The army ants were spreading everywhere. They would reach him +soon. + +Far to the right, the vapor thickened. A thin column of smoke arose in +the dim half-light. Burl did not know smoke, of course. He could not +conceivably guess that deep down in the interior of the insanely growing +hills, pressure had killed and oxidation had carbonized the once-living +material. By oxidation the temperature down below had been raised. In +the damp darkness of the bowels of the hills spontaneous combustion had +begun. + +The great mounds of tinderlike mushroom had begun to burn very slowly, +quite unseen. There had been no flames because the hills' surface +remained intact and there was no air to feed the burning. But when the +army ants dug ferociously for fugitive small things, air was admitted to +tunnels abandoned because of heat. + +Then slow combustion speeded up. Smoulderings became flames. Sparks +became coals. A dozen columns of fume-laden smoke rose into the heavens +and gathered into a dense pall above the range of purple hills. And Burl +apathetically watched the serried ranks of army ants march on toward the +widening furnaces that awaited them. + +They had recoiled from the river instinctively. But their ancestors had +never known fire. In the Amazon basin, on Earth, there had never been +forest fires. On the forgotten planet there had never been fires at all, +unless the first forgotten colonists tried to make them. In any case the +army ants had no instinctive terror of flame. They marched into the +blazing openings that appeared in the hills. They snapped with their +mandibles at the leaping flames, and sprang to grapple with the burning +coals. + +The blazing areas widened as the purple surface was consumed. Burl +watched without comprehension--even without thankfulness. He stood +breathing more and more easily until the glow from approaching flames +reddened his skin and the acrid smoke made tears flow from his eyes. +Then he retreated slowly, leaning on his club and often looking back. + +Night had fallen, but yet it was light to the army ants. They marched +on, shrilling their defiance. They poured devotedly--and +ferociously--into the inferno of flame. At last there were only small +groups of stragglers from the great ant-army scurrying here and there +over the ground their comrades had stripped of all life. The bodies of +the main army made a vast malodor, burning in the furnace of the hills. + +There had been pain in that burning, agony such as no one would willing +dwell upon. But it came of the insane courage of the ants, attacking the +burning stuff with their horny jaws, rolling over and over with flaming +lumps of charcoal clutched in their mandibles. Burl heard them shrilling +their war-cry even as they died. Blinded, antennae singed off, legs +shriveling, they yet went forward to attack their impossible enemy. + +Burl made his way slowly over the hills. Twice he saw small bodies of +the vanished army. They had passed between the widening furnaces and +furiously devoured all that moved as they forged ahead. Once Burl was +spied, and a shrill cry sounded, but he moved on and only a single ant +rushed after him. Burl brought down his club and a writhing body +remained to be eaten by its comrades when they came upon it. + +And now the last faint traces of light had vanished in the west. There +was no real brightness anywhere except the flames of the burning hills. +The slow, slow nightly rain that dripped down all through the dark hours +began. It made a pattering noise upon the unburnt part of the hills. + +Burl found firm ground beneath his feet. He listened keenly for sounds +of danger. Something rustled heavily in a thicket of toadstools a +hundred feet away. There were sounds of preening, and of feet delicately +placed here and there upon the ground. Then a great body took to the air +with the throbbing beat of mighty wings. + +A fierce down-current of air smote Burl, and he looked upward in time to +glimpse the outline of a huge moth passing overhead. He turned to watch +the line of its flight, and saw the fierce glow filling all the horizon. +The hills burned brighter as the flames widened. + +He crouched beneath a squat toadstool and waited for the dawn. The +slow-dripping rain kept on, falling with irregular, drum-like beats upon +the tough top of the toadstool. + +He did not sleep. He was not properly hidden, and there was always +danger in the dark. But this was not the darkness Burl was used to. The +great fires grew and spread in the masses of ready-carbonized mushroom. +The glare on the horizon grew brighter through the hours. It also came +nearer. + +Burl shivered a little, as he watched. He had never even dreamed of fire +before, and even the overhanging clouds were lighted by these flames. +Over a stretch at least a dozen miles in length and from half a mile to +three miles across, the seething furnaces and columns of flame-lit smoke +sent illumination over the world. It was like the glow the lights of a +city can throw upon the sky. And like the flitting of aircraft above a +city was the assembly of fascinated creatures of the night. + +Great moths and flying beetles, gigantic gnats and midges grown huge +upon this planet, fluttered and danced above the flames. As the fire +came nearer, Burl could see them: colossal, delicately-formed creatures +sweeping above the white-hot expanse. There were moths with +riotously-colored wings of thirty-foot spread, beating the air with +mighty strokes, their huge eyes glowing like garnets as they stared +intoxicatedly at the incandescence below them. + +Burl saw a great peacock-moth soaring above the hills with wings all of +forty feet across. They fluttered like sails of unbelievable +magnificence. And this was when all the separate flames had united to +form a single sheet of white-hot burning stuff spread across the land +for miles. + +Feathery antennae of the finest lace spread out before the head of the +peacock-moth; its body was of softest velvet. A ring of snow-white fur +marked where its head began. The glare from below smote the maroon of +its body with a strange effect. For one instant it was outlined clearly. +Its eyes shone more redly than any ruby's fire. The great, delicate +wings were poised in flight. Burl caught the flash of flame upon the two +great irridescent spots on the wings. Shining purple and bright red, all +the glory of chalcedony and of chrysoprase was reflected in the glare of +burning fungi. + +And then Burl saw it plunge downward, straight into the thickest and +fiercest of the leaping flames. It flung itself into the furnace as a +willing, drunken victim of their beauty. + +Flying beetles flew clumsily above the pyre also, their horny wing-cases +stiffly outstretched. In the light from below they shone like burnished +metal. Their clumsy bodies, with spurred and fierce-toothed limbs, +darted through the flame-lit smoke like so many grotesque meteors. + +Burl saw strange collisions and still stranger meetings. Male and female +flying creatures circled and spun in the glare, dancing their dance of +love and death. They mounted higher than Burl could see, drunk with the +ecstasy of living, and then descended to plunge headlong in the roaring +flames below. + +From every side the creatures came. Moths of brightest yellow, with +furry bodies palpitant with life, flew madly to destruction. Other moths +of a deepest black, with gruesome symbols on their wings, swiftly came +to dance above the glow like motes in sunlight. + +And Burl crouched beneath a toadstool, watching while the perpetual, +slow raindrops fell and fell, and a continuous hissing noise came from +where the rain splashed amid the flames. + + + + +_4. A KILLER OF MONSTERS_ + + +The night wore on, while the creatures above the firelight danced and +died, their numbers ever reinforced by fresh arrivals. Burl sat tensely +still, his eyes watching everything while his mind groped for an +explanation of what he saw. At last the sky grew dimly gray, then +brighter, and after a long time it was day. The flames of the burning +hills seemed to dim and die as all the world became bright. After a long +while Burl crawled from his hiding-place and stood erect. + +No more than two hundred paces from where he stood, a straight wall of +smoke rose from the still-smouldering fungus-range. Burl could see the +smoke rising for miles on either hand. He turned to continue on his way, +and saw the remains of one of the tragedies of the night. + +A great moth had flown into the flames, been horribly scorched, and +floundered out again. Had it been able to fly, it would have returned to +its devouring deity; but now it lay upon the ground, its antennae +hopelessly seared. One beautiful wing was nothing but gaping holes. The +eyes had been dimmed by flame. The exquisitely tapering limbs lay +broken and crushed by the violence of landing. The creature was helpless +on the ground, only the stumps of its antennae moving restlessly and the +abdomen pulsating slowly as it drew pain-racked breaths. + +Burl drew near. He raised his club. + +When he moved on there was a velvet cloak cast over his shoulders, +gleaming with all the colors of the rainbows. A gorgeous mass of soft +blue moth-fur was about his middle, and he had bound upon his forehead +two yard-long fragments of the moth's magnificent antennae. + +He strode on slowly, clad as no man had been clad in all the ages before +him. After a while another victim of the holocaust--similarly blundered +out to die--yielded him a spear that was longer and sharper and much +more deadly than his first. So he took up his journey to Saya looking +like a prince of Ind upon a bridal journey--though surely no mere prince +ever wore such raiment. + +For many miles, Burl threaded his way through an extensive forest of +thin-stalked toadstools. They towered high over his head, colorful, +parasitic moulds and rusts all about their bases. Twice he came upon +open glades where bubbling pools of green slime festered in corruption. +Once he hid himself as a monster scarabeus beetle lumbered by three +yards away, clanking like some mighty machine. + +Burl saw the heavy armor and inward-curving jaws of the monster. He +almost envied him his weapons. The time was not yet come, though, when +Burl and his kind would hunt such giants for the juicy flesh within its +armored limbs. Burl was still a savage, still ignorant, still +essentially timid. His only significant advance had been that where at +first he had fled without reasoning, now he paused to see if he need +flee. + +He was a strange sight, moving through the shadowed lanes of the forest +in his cloak of velvet. The fierce-toothed leg of a fighting beetle +rested in a strip of sinew about his waist, ready for use. His new spear +was taller than himself. He looked like a conqueror. But he was still a +fearful and feeble creature, no match for the monstrous creatures about +him. He was weak--and in that lay his greatest hope. Because if he were +strong, he would not need to think. + +Hundreds of thousands of years before, his ancestors had been forced to +develop brains as penalty for the lack of claws or fangs. Burl was sunk +as low as any of them, but he had to combat more horrifying enemies, +more inexorable dangers, and many times more crafty antagonists. His +ancestors had invented knives and spears and flying missiles, but the +creatures about Burl had weapons a thousand times more deadly than the +ones that had defended the first humans. + +The fact, however, simply put a premium on the one faculty Burl had +which the insect world has not. + +In mid-morning he heard a discordant, deep-bass bellow, coming from a +spot not twenty yards from where he moved. He hid in panic, waiting for +an instant, listening. + +The bellow came again, but this time with a querulous note. Burl heard a +crashing and plunging as of some creature caught in a snare. A mushroom +tumbled with a spongelike sound, and the thud was followed by a +tremendous commotion. Something was fighting desperately against +something else, but Burl did not know what creatures were in combat. + +He waited, and the noise died gradually away. Presently his breath came +more slowly and his courage returned. He stole from his hiding-place and +would have made away, but new curiosity held him back. Instead of +creeping from the scene, he moved cautiously toward the source of the +noise. + +Peering between two cream-colored stalks he saw a wide, funnel-shaped +snare of silk spread out before him, some twenty yards across and as +many deep. The individual threads could be plainly seen, but in the mass +it seemed a fabric of sheerest, finest texture. Held up by tall +mushrooms, it was anchored to the ground below and drew away to a small +point through which a hole led to some as yet unseen recess. All the +space of the wide snare was hung with threads: fine, twisted threads no +more than half the thickness of Burl's finger. + +This was the trap of a labyrinth spider. Not one of the interlacing +strands was strong enough to hold any but the feeblest prey, but the +threads were there by thousands. A cricket had become entangled in the +sticky maze. Its limbs thrashed out and broke threads with every stroke, +but each time became entangled in a dozen more. It struggled mightily, +emitting at intervals--again--its horrible bass roar. + +Burl breathed more easily. He watched with fascinated eyes. Mere death +among insects--even tragic death--held no great interest for him. It was +too common an occurrence. And there were few insects which deliberately +sought man. Most insects have their allotted prey and will seek no +others. + +But this involved a spider, and spiders have a terrifying impartiality. +A spider devouring some luckless insect was but an example of what might +happen to Burl. So he watched alertly, his eyes traveling from the +enmeshed cricket to the strange opening at the back of the funnel-shaped +labyrinth. + +That opening darkened. Two shining, glistening eyes had been watching +from the tunnel in which the spider had been waiting. Now it swung out +lightly, revealing itself as a gray spider, with twin black ribbons upon +its thorax and two stripes of curiously speckled brown and white upon +its abdomen. Burl saw, also, two curious appendages like a tail, as it +came nimbly out of its hiding-place and approached the trapped creature. + +The cricket was struggling weakly, now, and the cries it uttered were +but feeble, because of the cords that fettered its limbs. Burl saw the +spider throw itself upon the cricket which gave one final, convulsive +shudder as fangs pierced its armor. + +Shortly after, the spider fed. With bestial enjoyment it sucked all the +succulence, all the fluid, from its victim's carcass. + +Then the breath left Burl in a peculiar, frightened gasp. It was not +from anything he saw or heard. It was something that he thought. + +For a second, his knees knocked together in self-induced panic. It +occurred to him that he, Burl, had killed a hunting spider--a +tarantula--upon the red-clay cliff. True, the killing had been an +accident and had nearly cost him his own life in the web-spider's snare. +But--he had killed a spider and of the most deadly kind. Now it occurred +to Burl that he could kill another. + +Spiders were the ogres of the human tribes on the forgotten planet. +Knowledge of them was hard to come by, because to study them was death. +But all men knew that web-spiders never left their traps. Never! And +Burl had imagined himself making an impossibly splendid, incredibly +daring use of that fact. + +Denying to himself that he intended any action so suicidal, he +nevertheless drew back from the front of the snare and made his way to +the back, where the spider's tunnel was no more than ten feet away. + +Then he found himself waiting. + +Presently, through the interstices of the silk, he saw the gray bulk of +the spider. It had left the drained and shrunken carcass of the cricket +to return to its resting-place, settling itself carefully upon the soft +walls of the fabric tunnel. From the yielding, globular nest at the +tunnel's end it fixed maniacal eyes once more upon the threads of its +snare, seen down the length of the passage-way. + +Burl's hair stood on end from sheer fright, but he was the slave of an +idea. + +The tunnel and the nest at its end did not rest on the ground, but were +suspended in air by cables like those that spread the gin itself. The +gray labyrinth-spider bulged the fabric. It lay in luxurious comfort, +waiting for victims to approach. + +There was sweat on Burl's face as he raised his spear. The bare idea of +attacking a spider was horrifying. But actually he was in no danger +whatever before the instant of the spear-thrust, because web-spiders +never, never, leave their webs to hunt. + +So Burl sweated, and grasped his spear with agonized firmness--and +thrust it into the bulge that was the spider's body in its nest. He +thrust with hysterical fury. + +And then he ran as if the devil were after him. + +It was a long time before he dared come back, his heart in his throat. +All was still. He had missed the horrid convulsions of the wounded +spider; he had not heard the frightful gnashings of its fangs at the +piercing weapon, nor seen the silken threads of the tunnel ripped and +torn in the spider's death-struggle. Burl came back to quietness. There +was a great rent in the silken tunnel, and a puddle of ill-smelling +stuff lay upon the ground. From time to time another droplet fell from +the spear to join it. And the great spider had fallen half through its +own enlargement of the rent made by the spear in the wall of the nest. + +Burl stared. Even when he saw it, the thing was not easy to believe. The +dead eyes of the spider looked at him with mad, frozen malignity. The +fangs were still raised to kill. The hairy legs were still braced as if +to enlarge further the gaping hole through which it had partly fallen. + +Then Burl felt exultation. His tribe had been furtive vermin for almost +forty generations, fleeing from the mighty insects, hiding from them, +and when caught waiting helplessly for death, screaming shrilly in +horror. But he, Burl, had turned the tables. He, a man, had killed a +spider! His breast expanded. Always his tribesmen went quietly and +fearfully, making no sound. But a sudden, surprising, triumphant yell +burst from Burl's lips--the first hunting-cry of man upon the forgotten +planet in two thousand years. + +Next second, of course, his pulse almost stopped in sheer terror because +he had made such a noise. He listened fearfully. The insect world was +oblivious to him. Presently, shuddering but infinitely proud, he drew +near his prey. He carefully withdrew his spear, poised to flee if the +spider stirred. It did not. It was dead. The blood upon the spear was +revolting. Burl wiped it off on a leathery toadstool. Then.... + +He thought of Saya and his tribesmen. Trembling even as he gloated over +his own remarkable self, he shifted the spider and worked it out of the +nest. Presently he moved off with the belly of the spider upon his back +and two of its hairy legs over his shoulders. The other limbs of the +monster hung limp, trailing on the ground behind him. + +Marching, then he was the first such spectacle in history. His velvet +cloak shining with its irridescent spots, the yard-long scraps of golden +antennae bound to his forehead, a spear in his hand, and the hideous +bulk of a gray spider for burden--Burl was a very strange sight indeed. + +He believed that other creatures fled before him because of the thing he +carried. He tended to grow haughty. But actually, of course, insects do +not know fear. They recognize their own specific enemies. That is +necessary. But the his of the lowlands on the forgotten planet went on +abstractedly, despite the splendid feat of one man. + +Burl marched. He came upon a valley full of torn and tattered mushrooms. +There was not a single yellow top among them. Every one had been +infested with maggots that had liquefied the tough meat of the +mushroom-tops, causing it to drip to the ground below. The liquid was +gathered in a golden pool in the center of the small depression. Burl +heard a loud and deep-toned humming before he saw the valley. Then he +stopped and looked down. + +He saw the golden pond, its surface reflecting the gray sky and the +darkened stumps of mushrooms on the hillside which looked as if they had +been blackened by a running flame. A small brooklet of golden liquid +trickled over a rocky ledge, and all round the edges of the pond and +brook, in ranks and rows, by hundreds and by thousands and it seemed by +millions, were the green-gold bodies of great flies. + +They were small compared to other insects. The flesh-flies laid their +eggs by the hundreds in decaying carcasses. The others chose mushrooms +to lay their eggs in. To feed the maggots that would hatch, a relatively +great quantity of food was needed; therefore, the flies must remain +comparatively small, or the body of a single grasshopper would furnish +food for only a few maggots instead of the hundreds it must support. +There must also be a limit to the size of worms if hundreds were to +feast upon a single fungus. + +But there was no limitation to the greediness of the adult creatures. +There were bluebottles and green-bottles and all the flies of metallic +lustre, gathered at a Lucullan feast of corruption. The buzzing of those +swarming above the golden pool was a tremendous sound. The flying bodies +flashed and glittered as they flew back and forth, seeking a place to +alight and join in the orgy. + +The glittering bodies clustered in already-found places were motionless +as if carved from metal. Burl watched them. And then he saw motion +overhead. + +A slender, brilliant shape appeared, darting swiftly through the air, +enlarging into a needle-like body with transparent, shining wings and +two huge eyes. It circled and enlarged again, becoming a shimmering +dragonfly, twenty feet and more in length. It poised itself abruptly +above the pool, and then darted down, its jaws snapping viciously. They +snapped again and again. Burl could not follow their slashings. And with +each snap the glittering body of a fly vanished. + +A second dragonfly appeared and a third. They swooped above the golden +pool, snapping in mid-air, making their abrupt and angular turns, +creatures of incredible ferocity and beauty. In that mass of buzzing +creatures, even the most voracious appetite must soon have been sated, +but the slender creatures still darted about in frenzied destruction. + +And all this while the loud, contented, deep-bass humming went on as +before. Their comrades were slaughtered by the hundreds not forty feet +above their heads, but still the glittering rows of red-eyed flies +gorged themselves upon the fluid of the pond. The dragonflies feasted +until they were unable to devour even a single one more of their chosen +prey. But even then they continued to sweep madly above the pool, +striking down the buzzing flies though their bodies must perforce remain +uneaten. + +Some of the dead flies, crushed to pulp by the angry dragonflies, +dropped among their feasting brothers. Presently, one of them placed its +disgusting proboscis upon the mangled creature. It sipped daintily from +the contents of the broken armor. Another joined it and another. In a +little while a cluster of them pushed against each other for a chance to +join them in a cannibalistic feast. + +Burl turned aside and went on, leaving the dragonflies still at their +massacre and the flies absorbed and ecstatic at their feast. The feast, +indeed, was improved by the rain of murdered brethren from overhead. + +Only a few miles farther on, Burl came upon a familiar landmark. He knew +it well, but had always kept at a safe distance from it. A mass of rock +had heaved itself up from the almost level plain over which he traveled +to form an out-jutting cliff. At one point the rock overhung, forming an +inverted ledge--a roof over nothingness--which had been preempted by a +hairy monster and made into a fairy-like dwelling. A white hemisphere +clung to the rock, firmly anchored by long cables. + +Burl knew the place as one to be feared. A clotho spider had built +itself a nest there, from which it emerged to hunt the unwary. Within +the silken globe was a monstrosity, resting upon cushions of softest +silk. The exterior had been beautiful once. But if one went too near one +of the little inverted arches seemingly closed by panels of silk--it +would open and out would rush a creature from a dream of hell. + +Surely Burl knew this place. Hung upon the walls of the fairy palace +were trophies. They had a purpose, of course. Stones and boulders hung +there, too, to hold the structure firm against the storm-winds that +rarely blew. But amid the stones and fragments of insect-armor there was +a very special decoration: the shrunken, dessicated skeleton of a man. + +The death of that man had saved Burl's life two years before. They had +been together, seeking a new source of edible mushroom. The clotho +spider was a hunter, not a spinner of webs. It had sprung suddenly from +behind a great puffball as the two men froze in horror. Then it had come +forward and deliberately chosen its victim. It did not choose Burl. + +Now he looked with half-frightened speculation at the lair of his +ancient enemy. Some day, perhaps.... + +But now he passed on. He went past the thicket in which the great moths +hid by day, past the slimy pool in which something unknown but terrible +lurked. He penetrated the little forest of mushrooms that glowed at +night and the place where the truffle-hunting beetles chirped +thunderously during the dark hours. + +And then he saw Saya. He caught a flash of pink skin vanishing behind a +squat toadstool, and he ran forward calling her name. She emerged, and +saw the figure with the horrible bulk of the spider on its back. She +cried out in horror, and Burl understood. He let his burden fall, +running swiftly to her. + +They met. Saya waited timidly until she saw who this man was, and then +she was astounded indeed. With golden plumes rising from his head, a +velvet cloak about his shoulders, blue moth-fur about his middle, and a +spear in his hand--and a dead spider behind him!--this was not the Burl +she had known. + +He took her hands, babbling proudly. She stared at him and at his +victim--but the language of men had diminished sadly--struggling to +comprehend. Presently her eyes glowed. She pulled at his wrists. + +When they found the other tribesmen, they were carrying the dead spider +between them, Saya looking more proud than Burl. + + + + +_5. MEAT OF MAN'S KILLING!_ + + +In their climb up from savagery, the principal handicap from which men +have always suffered is the fact that they are human. Or it can be said +that human beings always have to struggle against the obstacle which is +simply that they are men. To Burl his splendid return to the tribe +called for a suitable reaction. He expected them to take note that he +was remarkable, unparalleled, and in all ways admirable. He expected +them to look at him with awe. He rather hoped that the sight of him +would involve something like ecstasy. + +And as a matter of fact, it did. For fully an hour they gathered around +him while he used his--and their--scanty vocabulary to tell them of his +unique achievements and adventures during the past two days and nights. +They listened attentively and with appropriate admiration and vicarious +pride. + +This in itself was a step upward. Mostly their talk was of where food +might be found and where danger lurked. Strictly practical data +connected with the pressing business of getting enough to eat and +staying alive. The sheer pressure of existence was so great that the +humans Burl knew had altogether abandoned such luxuries as boastful +narrative. They had given up tradition. They did not think of art in +even its most primitive forms, and the only craft they knew was the +craftiness which promoted simple survival. So for them to listen to a +narrative which did not mean either food or even a lessening of danger +to themselves was a step upward on the cultural scale. + +But they were savages. They inspected the dead spider, shuddering. It +was pure horror. They did not touch it--the adults not at all, and even +Dik and Tet not for a very long time. Nobody thought of spiders as food. +Too many of them had been spiders' food. + +But presently even the horror aroused by the spider palled. The younger +children quailed at sight of it, of course; but the adults came to +ignore it. Only the two gangling boys tried to break off a furry leg +with which to charge and terrify the younger ones still further. They +failed to get it loose because they did not think of cutting it. But +they had nothing to cut it with anyhow. + +Old Jon went wheezing off, foraging. He waved a hand to Burl as he went. +Burl was indignant. But it was true that he had brought back no food. +And people must eat. + +Tama went off, her tongue clacking, with Lona the half-grown girl to +help her find and bring back something edible. Dor, the strongest man in +the tribe, went away to look where he thought there might be edible +mushrooms full-grown again. Cori left with her children--very carefully +on watch for danger to them--to see what she could find. + +In little more than an hour Burl's audience had diminished to Saya. +Within two hours ants found the spider where it had been placed for the +tribe to admire. Within three hours there was nothing left of it. During +the fourth hour--as Burl struggled to dredge up some new, splendid item +to tell Saya for the tenth time, or thereabouts--during the fourth hour +one of the tribeswomen beckoned to Saya. She left with a flashing +backward smile for Burl. She went, actually, to help dig up underground +fungi--much like truffles--discovered by the older woman. She +undoubtedly expected to share them with Burl. + +But in five hours it was night and Burl was very indignant with his +tribesfolk. They had shifted the location of the hiding-place for the +night, and nobody had thought to tell him. And if Saya wished to come +for Burl, to lead him to that place, she did not dare for the simple +reason that it was night. + +For a long time after he found a hiding-place, Burl fumed bitterly to +himself. He was very much of a human being, differing from his +fellows--so far--mainly because he had been through experiences not +shared by them. He had resolved a subjective dilemma of sorts by +determining to return to his tribe. He had discovered a weapon which, at +first, had promised--and secured--foodstuff, and later had saved him +from a tarantula. His discovery that fish-oil was useful when applied to +spider-snares and things sticking to the feet was of vast importance to +the tribe. Most remarkable of all, he had deliberately killed a spider. +And he had experienced triumph. Temporarily he had even experienced +admiration. + +The adulation was a thing which could never be forgotten. Human +appetites are formed by human experiences. One never had an appetite for +a thing one has not known in some fashion. But no human being who has +known triumph is ever quite the same again, and anybody who has once +been admired by his fellows is practically ruined for life--at least so +far as being independent of admiration is concerned. + +So during the dark hours, while the slow rain dipped in separate, heavy +drops from the sky, Burl first coddled his anger--which was a very good +thing for a member of a race grown timorous and furtive--and then began +to make indignant plans to force his tribesmen to yield him more of the +delectable sensations he alone had begun to know. + +He was not especially comfortable during the night. The hiding-place he +had chosen was not water-tight. Water trickled over him for several +hours before he discovered that his cloak, though it would not keep him +dry--which it would have done if properly disposed--would still keep the +same water next to his skin where his body could warm it. Then he slept. +When morning came he felt singularly refreshed. For a savage, he was +unusually clean, too. + +He woke before dawn with vainglorious schemes in his head. The sky grew +gray and then almost white. The overhanging cloud bank seemed almost to +touch the earth, but gradually withdrew. The mist among the +mushroom-forests grew thinner, and the slow rain ceased reluctantly. +When he peered from his hiding-place, the mad world he knew was, as far +as he could see, quite mad, as usual. The last of the night-insects had +vanished. The day-creatures began to venture out. + +Not too far from the crevice where he'd hidden was an ant-hill, +monstrous by standards on other planets. It was piled up not of sand but +gravel and small boulders. Burl saw a stirring. At a certain spot the +smooth, outer surface crumbled and fell into an invisible opening. A +spot of darkness appeared. Two slender, thread-like antennae popped out. +They withdrew and popped out again. The spot enlarged until there was a +sizeable opening. An ant appeared, one of the warrior-ants of this +particular breed. It stood fiercely over the opening, waving its +antennae agitatedly as if striving to sense some danger to its +metropolis. + +He was fourteen inches long, this warrior, and his mandibles were fierce +and strong. After a moment, two other warriors thrust past him. They ran +about the whole extent of the ant-hill, their legs clicking, antennae +waving restlessly. + +They returned, seeming to confer with the first, then went back down +into the city with every appearance of satisfaction. As if they made a +properly reassuring report, within minutes afterward, a flood of black, +ill-smelling workers poured out of the opening and dispersed about +their duties. + +The city of the ants had begun its daily toil. There were deep galleries +underground here: graineries, storage-vaults, refectories, and +nurseries, and even a royal apartment in which the queen-ant reposed. +She was waited upon by assiduous courtiers, fed by royal stewards, and +combed and caressed by the hands of her subjects and children. A dozen +times larger than her loyal servants, she was no less industrious than +they in her highly specialized fashion. From the time of waking to the +time of rest she was queen-mother in the most literal imaginable sense. +At intervals, to be measured only in minutes, she brought forth an egg, +perhaps three inches in length, which was whisked away to the municipal +nursery. And this constant, insensate increase in the population of the +city made all its frantic industry at once possible and necessary. + +Burl came out and spread his cloak on the ground. In a little while he +felt a tugging at it. An ant was tearing off a bit of the hem. Burl slew +the ant angrily and retreated. Twice within the next half-hour he had to +move swiftly to avoid foragers who would not directly attack him because +he was alive--unless he seemed to threaten danger--but who lusted after +the fabric of his garments. + +This annoyance--and Burl would merely have taken it as a thing to be +accepted a mere two days before--this annoyance added to Burl's +indignation with the world about him. He was in a very bad temper indeed +when he found old Jon, wheezing as he checked on the possibility of +there being edible mushrooms in a thicket of poisonous, pink-and-yellow +amanitas. + +Burl haughtily commanded Jon to follow him. Jon's untidy whiskers parted +as his mouth dropped open in astonishment. Burl's tribe was so far from +being really a tribe that for anybody to give a command was astonishing. +There was no social organization, absolutely no tradition of command. +As a rule life was too uncertain for anybody to establish authority. + +But Jon followed Burl as he stamped on through the morning mist. He saw +a small movement and shouted imperatively. This was appalling! Men did +not call attention to themselves! He gathered up Dor, the strongest of +the men. Later, he found Jak who some day would wear an expression of +monkey-like wisdom. Then Tet and Dik, the half-grown boys, came trooping +to see what was happening. + +Burl led onward. A quarter of a mile and they came upon a great, gutted +shell which had been a rhinoceros beetle the day before. Today it was a +disassembled mass of chitinous armor. Burl stopped, frowning +portentously. He showed his quaking followers how to arm themselves. Dor +picked up the horn hesitantly, Burl showing him how to use it. He +stabbed out awkwardly with the sharp fragment of armor. Burl showed +others how to use the leg-sections for clubs. They tested them without +conviction. In any sort of danger, they would trust to their legs and a +frantically effective gift for hiding. + +Burl snarled at his tribesmen and led them on. It was unprecedented. But +because of that fact there was no precedent for rebellion. Burl led them +in a curve. They glanced all about apprehensively. + +When they came to an unusually large and attractive clump of golden +edible mushrooms, there were murmurings. Old Jon was inclined to go and +load himself and retire to some hiding-place for as long as the food +lasted. But Burl snarled again. + +Numbly they followed on--Dor and Jon and Jak and the two youngsters. The +ground inclined upward. They came upon puffballs. There was a new kind +visible, colored a lurid red, that did not grow like the others. It +seemed to begin and expand underground, then thrust away the soil above +in its development. Its taut, angry-red parchment envelope seemed to +swell from a reservoir of subterranean material. Burl and the others had +never seen anything like it. + +They climbed higher. As other edible mushrooms came into view Burl's +followers cheered visibly. This was a new tribal ground anyhow and it +had not been fully explored. But Burl was leading them to quantities of +food they had never suspected before. + +Quaintly, it was Burl himself who began to feel an uncomfortable dryness +in his throat. He knew what he was about. His followers did not suspect +because to them what he intended was simply inconceivable. They couldn't +suspect it because they couldn't imagine anybody doing such a thing. It +simply couldn't be thought of at all. + +It is rather likely that Burl began to regret that he had thought of it. +It had come to him first as an angry notion in the night. Then the idea +had developed as a suitable punishment for his abandonment. By dawn it +was an ambition so terrifying that it fascinated him. Now he was +committed to it in his own mind, and the only way to keep his knees from +knocking together was to keep moving. If his followers had protested +now, he would have allowed himself to be persuaded. But he heard more +pleased murmurs. There was more edible stuff, in quantity. But there +were no ant-trails here, no sounds of foraging beetles. This was an area +which Burl's tribesmen could clearly see was almost devoid of dangerous +life. They seemed to brighten a little. This, they seemed to think, +would be a good place to move to. + +But Burl knew better. There were few ground-insects here because the +area was hunted out. And Burl knew what had done the hunting. + +He expected the others to realize where they were when they dodged +around a clump of the new red puffballs and saw bald rock before them +and a falling-away to emptiness beyond. Even then they could have +retreated, but it did not enter their heads that Burl could do anything +like this. + +They didn't know where they were until Burl held up his hand for silence +almost at the edge of the rock-knob which rose a hundred feet sheer, +curving out a little near its top. They looked out uncomprehendingly at +the mist-filled air and the nightmare landscape fading into its +grayness. A tiny spider, the very youngest of hatchlings and barely four +inches across, stealthily stalked another vastly smaller mite. The other +was the many-legged larva of the oil-beetle. The larva itself had been +called--on other planets by other men--the bee-louse. It could easily +hide in the thick furl of a giant bumble-bee. But this one small +creature never practiced that ability. The hatchling spider sprang and +the small midge died. When the spider had grown and, being grown, spun a +web, it would slay great crickets with the same insane ferocity. + +Burl's followers saw first this and then certain three-quarter-inch +strands of dirty silk that came up over the edge of the precipice. As +one man after another realized where he was, he trembled violently. Dor +turned gray. Jon and Jak were paralyzed with horror. They couldn't run. + +Seeing the others even more frightened than himself filled Burl with a +wholly unwarranted courage. When he opened his mouth, they cringed. If +he shouted then at least one, more likely several, of them would die. + +And this was because some forty or fifty feet down the mould-speckled +precipice hung a drab-white object nearly hemispherical, some six feet +in its half-diameter. A number of little semi-circular doors were fixed +about its sides like arches. Though each one seemed to be a doorway, +only one would open. + +The thing had been oddly beautiful at first glance. It was held fast to +the inward-sloping stone by cables, one or two of which stretched down +toward the ground. Others reached up over the precipice-edge to hold it +fast. It was a most unusual engineering feat, yet something more than +that: this was also an ogre's castle. Ghastly trophies were fastened to +the outer walls and hung by silken cords below it. Here was the hind-leg +of one of the smaller beetles, there the wing-case of a flying creature. +Here a snail-shell--the snails of Earth would hardly have recognized +their descendant--and there a boulder weighing forty pounds or more. The +shrunken head-armor of a beetle, the fierce jaws of a cricket, the +pitiful shreds of dozens of creatures--all had once provided meals for +the monster in the castle. And dangling by the longest cord of all was +the shrunken, shriveled body of a long-dead man. + +Burl glared at his tribesmen, clamping his jaws tight lest they chatter. +He knew, as did the others, that any noise would bring the clotho spider +swinging up its anchor-cables to the cliff-top. The men didn't dare +move. But every one of them--and Burl was among the foremost--knew that +inside the half-dome of gruesome relics the monster reposed in luxury +and ease. It had eight furry, attenuated legs and a face that was a mask +of horror. The eyes glittered malevolently above needle-sharp mandibles. +It was a hunting-spider. At any moment it might leave the charnel-house +in which it lived to stalk and pursue prey. + +Burl motioned the others forward. He led one of them to the end of a +cable where it curled up over the edge for an anchorage. He ripped the +end free--and his flesh crawled as he did so. He found a boulder and +knotted the end of the cable about it. In a whisper that imitated a +spider's ferocity, Burl gave the man orders. He plucked a second quaking +tribesman by the arm. With the jerky, uncontrolled movements of a robot, +Dor allowed himself to be led to a second cable. + +Burl commanded in a frenzy. He worked with stiff fingers and a dry +throat, not knowing how he could do this thing. He had formed a plan in +anger which he somehow was carrying out in a panic. Although his +followers were as responsive as dead men, they obeyed him because they +felt like dead men, unable to resist. After all, it was simple enough. +There were boulders at the top of the precipice and silken cables hung +taut over the edge. As Burl fastened a heavy boulder to each cable he +could find, he loosened the silken strand until it hung tight only at +the very edge of the more-than-vertical fall. + +He took his post--and his followers gazed at him with the despairing +eyes of zombies--and made a violent, urgent gesture. One man dumped his +boulder over the precipice's edge. Burl cried out shrilly to the others, +half-mad with his own terror. There was a ripping sound. The other men +dumped their boulders over, fleeing with the movement--the paralysis of +horror relieved by that one bit of exertion. + +Burl could not flee. He panted and gasped, but he had to see. He stared +down the dizzy wall. Boulders ripped and tore their way down the +cliff-wall, pulling the cables loose from the face of the precipice. +They shot out into space and jerked violently at the half-globular nest, +ripping it loose from its anchorage. + +Burl cried out exultantly. And as he cried out the shout became a +bubbling sound; for although the ogre's silken castle did swing clear, +it did not drop the sixty feet to the hard ground below. There was one +cable Burl had missed, hidden by rock-tripe and mould in a depressed +part of the cliff-top. The spider's house was dangling crazily by that +one strand, bobbing erratically to and fro in mid-air. + +And there was a convulsive struggle inside it. One of the arch-doors +opened and the spider emerged. It was doubtless confused, but spiders +simply do not know terror. Their one response to the unusual is +ferocity. There was still one cable leading up the cliff-face--the +thing's normal climbing-rope to its hunting-ground above. The spider +leaped for this single cable. Its legs grasped the cord. It swarmed +upward, poison fangs unsheathed, mandibles clashing in rage. The shaggy +hair of its body seemed to bristle with insane ferocity. The skinny +articulated legs fairly twinkled as it rose. It made slavering noises, +unspeakably horrifying. + +Burl's followers were already in panic-stricken flight. He could hear +them crashing through obstacles as they ran glassy-eyed from the horror +they only imagined, but which Burl could not but encounter. Burl +shivered, his body poised for equally frenzied but quite hopeless +flight. But his first step was blocked. There was a boulder behind him, +standing on end, reaching up to his knee. He could not take the first +step without dodging it. + +It was not the Burl of the terror-filled childhood who acted then. It +was the throw-back, the atavism to a bolder ancestry. While the Burl who +was a product of his environment was able to know only the stunned +sensations of purest panic, the other Burl acted on a sounder basis of +desperation. The emerging normal human seized the upright boulder. He +staggered to the rock-face with it. He dumped it down the line of the +descending cable. + +Humans do have ancestral behavior-patterns built into their nervous +systems. A frightened small child does not flee; it swarms up the +nearest adult to be carried away from danger. At ten a child does not +climb but runs. And there is an age when it is normal for a man to stand +at bay. This last instinct can be conditioned away. In Burl's fellows +and his immediate forbears it had been. But things had happened to Burl +to break that conditioning. + +He flung the pointed boulder down. For the fraction of a second he heard +only the bubbling, gnashing sounds the spider made as it climbed toward +him. Then there was a quite indescribable cushioned impact. After that, +there were seconds in which Burl heard nothing whatever--and then a +noise which could not be described either, but was the impact of the +spider's body on the ground a hundred feet below, together with the +pointed boulder it had fought insanely during all its fall. And the +boulder was on top. The noise was sickening. + +Burl found himself shaking all over. His every muscle was tense and +strained. But the spider did not crawl over the edge of the precipice +and something had hit far below. + +A long minute later he managed to look. + +The nest still dangled at the end of the single cable, festooned with +its gruesome trophies. But Burl saw the spider. It was, of course, +characteristically tenacious of life. Its legs writhed and kicked, but +the body was crushed and mangled. + +As Burl stared down, trying to breathe again, an ant drew near the +shattered creature. It stridulated. Other ants came. They hovered +restlessly at the edge of the death-scene. One loathesome leg did not +quiver. An ant moved in on it. + +The ants began to tear the dead spider apart, carrying its fragments to +their city a mile away. + +Up on the cliff-top Burl got unsteadily to his feet and found that he +could breathe. He was drenched in sweat, but the shock of triumph was as +overwhelming as any of the terrors felt by ancestors on this planet. + +On no other planet in the Galaxy could any human experience such triumph +as Burl felt now because never before had human beings been so +completely subjugated by their environment. On no other planet had such +an environment existed, with humans flung so helplessly upon its mercy. + +Burl had been normal among his fellows when he was as frightened and +furtive as they. Now he had been given shock treatment by fate. He was +very close to normal for a human being newly come to the forgotten +planet, save that he had the detailed information which would enable a +normal man to cope with the nightmare environment. What he lacked now +was the habit. + +But it would be intolerable for him to return to his former state of +mind. + +He walked almost thoughtfully after his fled followers. And he was +still a savage in that he was remarkably matter-of-fact. He paused to +break off a huge piece of the edible golden mushrooms his fellow-men had +noticed on the way up. Lugging it easily, he went back down over the +ground that had looked so astonishingly free of inimical life--which it +was because of the spider that had used it as a hunting-preserve. + +Burl began to see that it was not satisfactory to be one of a tribe of +men who ran away all the time. If one man with a spear or stone could +kill spiders, it was ridiculous for half a dozen men to run away and +leave that one man the job alone. It made the job harder. + +It occurred to Burl that he had killed ants without thinking too much +about it, but nobody else had. Individual ants could be killed. If he +got his followers to kill foot-long ants, they might in time battle the +smaller, two-foot beetles. If they came to dare so much, they might +attack greater creatures and ultimately attempt to resist the real +predators. + +Not clearly but very dimly, the Burl who had been shocked back to the +viewpoint which was normal to the race of men saw that human beings +could be more than the fugitive vermin on which other creatures preyed. +It was not easy to envision, but he found it impossible to imagine +sinking back to his former state. As a practical matter, if he was to +remain as leader his tribesmen would have to change. + +It was a long time before he reached the neighborhood of the +hiding-place of which he had not been told the night before. He sniffed +and listened. Presently he heard faint, murmurous noises. He traced +them, hearing clearly the sound of hushed weeping and excited, timid +chattering. He heard old Tama shrilly bewailing fate and the stupidity +of Burl in getting himself killed. + +He pushed boldly through the toadstool-growth and found his tribe all +gathered together and trembling. They were shaken. They chattered +together--not discussing or planning, but nervously recalling the +terrifying experience they had gone through. + +Burl stepped through the screen of fungi and men gaped at him. Then they +leaped up to flee, thinking he might be pursued. Tet and Dik babbled +shrilly. Burl cuffed them. It was an excellent thing for him to do. No +man had struck another man in Burl's memory. Cuffings were reserved for +children. But Burl cuffed the men who had fled from the cliff-edge. And +because they had not been through Burl's experiences, they took the +cuffings like children. + +He took Jon and Jak by the ear and heaved them out of the hiding-place. +He followed them, and then drove them to where they could see the base +of the cliff from whose top they had tumbled stones--and then run away. +He showed them the carcass of the spider, now being carted away +piecemeal by ants. He told them angrily how it had been killed. + +They looked at him fearfully. + +He was exasperated. He scowled at them. And then he saw them shifting +uneasily. There were clickings. A single, foraging black ant--rather +large, quite sixteen inches long--moved into view. It seemed to be +wandering purposelessly, but was actually seeking carrion to take back +to its fellows. It moved toward the men. They were alive, therefore, it +did not think of them as food--though it could regard them as enemies. + +Burl moved forward and struck with his club. It was butchery. It was +unprecedented. When the creature lay still he commanded one of his typo +for followers to take it up. Inside its armored legs there would be +meat. He mentioned the fact, pungently. Their faces expressed amazed +wonderment. + +There was another clicking. Another solitary ant. Burl handed his club +to Dor, pushing him forward. Dor hesitated. Though he was not afraid of +one wandering ant, he held back uneasily. Burl barked at him. + +Dor struck clumsily and botched the job. Burl had to use his spear to +finish it. But a second bit of prey lay before the men. + +Then, quite suddenly, this completely unprecedented form of foraging +became understandable to Burl's followers. Jak giggled nervously. + +An hour later Burl led them back to the tribe's hiding-place. The others +had been terror-stricken, not knowing where the men had gone. But their +terror changed to mute amazement when the men carried huge quantities of +meat and edible mushroom into the hiding-place. The tribe held what +amounted to a banquet. + +Dik and Tet swaggered under a burden of ant-carcass. This was not, of +course, in any way revolting. Back on Earth, even thousands of years +before, Arabs had eaten locusts cooked in butter and salted. All men had +eaten crabs and other crustaceans, whose feeding habits were similar to +those of ants. If Burl and his tribesmen had thought to be fastidious, +ants on the forgotten planet would still have been considered edible, +since they had not lost the habits of extreme cleanliness which made +them notable on Earth. + +This feast of all the tribe, in which men had brought back not only +mushroom to be eaten, but actual prey--small prey--of their hunting, was +very probably the first such occasion in at least thirty generations of +the forty-odd since the planet's unintended colonization. Like the other +events, which began with Burl trying to spear a fish with a +rhinoceros-beetle's horn, it was not only novel, on that world, but +would in time have almost incredibly far-reaching consequences. Perhaps +the most significant thing about it was its timing. It came at very +nearly the latest instant at which it could have done any good. + +There was a reason which nobody in the tribe would ever remember to +associate with the significance of this banquet. A long time +before--months in terms of Earth-time--there had been a strong breeze +that blew for three days and nights. It was an extremely unusual +windstorm. It had seemed the stranger, then, because during all its +duration everyone in the tribe had been sick, suffering continuously. +When the windstorm had ended, the suffering ceased. A long time passed +and nobody remembered it any longer. + +There was no reason why they should. Yet, since that time there had been +a new kind of thing growing among the innumerable moulds and rusts and +toadstools of the lowlands. Burl had seen them on his travels, and the +expeditionary force against the clotho spider had seen them on the +journey up to the cliff-edge. Red puffballs, developing first +underground, were now pushing the soil aside to expose taut, crimson +parchment spheres to the open air. The tribesmen left them alone because +they were strange; and strange things were always dangerous. Puffballs +they were familiar with--big, misshapen things which shot at a touch a +powder into the air. The particles of powder were spores--the seed from +which they grew. Spores had remained infinitely small even on the +forgotten planet where fungi grew huge. Only their capacity for growth +had increased. The red growths were puffballs, but of a new and +different kind. + +As the tribe ate and admired, the hunters boasting of their courage, one +of the new red mushrooms reached maturity. + +This particular growing thing was perhaps two feet across, its main part +spherical. Almost eighteen inches of the thing rose above-ground. A +tawny and menacing red, the sphere was contained in a parchment-like +skin that was pulled taut. There was internal tension. But the skin was +tough and would not yield, yet the inexorable pressure of life within +demanded that it stretch. It was growing within, but the skin without +had ceased to grow. + +This one happened to be on a low hillside a good half-mile from the +place where Burl and his fellows banqueted. Its tough, red parchment +skin was tensed unendurably. Suddenly it ripped apart with an explosive +tearing noise. The dry spores within billowed out and up like the smoke +of a shell-explosion, spurting skyward for twenty feet and more. At the +top of their ascent they spread out and eddied like a cloud of reddish +smoke. They hung in the air. They drifted in the sluggish breeze. They +spread as they floated, forming a gradually extending, descending +dust-cloud in the humid air. + +A bee, flying back toward its hive, droned into the thin mass of dust. +It was preoccupied. The dust-cloud was not opaque, but only a thick +haze. The bee flew into it. + +For half a dozen wing-beats nothing happened. Then the bee veered +sharply. Its deep-toned humming rose in pitch. It made convulsive +movements in mid-air. It lost balance and crashed heavily to the ground. +There its legs kicked and heaved violently but without purpose. The +wings beat furiously but without rhythm or effect. Its body bent in +paroxysmic flexings. It stung blindly at nothing. + +After a little while the bee died. Like all insects, bees breathe +through spiracles--breathing-holes in their abdomens. This bee had flown +into the cloud of red dust which was the spore-cloud of the new +mushrooms. + +The cloud drifted slowly along over the surface of yeasts and moulds, +over toadstools and variegated fungus monstrosities. It moved steadily +over a group of ants at work upon some bit of edible stuff. They were +seized with an affliction like that of the bee. They writhed, moved +convulsively. Their legs thrashed about. They died. + +The cloud of red dust settled as it moved. By the time it had travelled +a quarter-mile, it had almost all settled to the ground. + +But a half-mile away there was another skyward-spurting uprush of red +dust which spread slowly with the breeze. A quarter-mile away another +plumed into the air. Farther on, two of them spouted their spores toward +the clouds almost together. + +Living things that breathed the red dust writhed and died. And the +red-dust puffballs were scattered everywhere. + +Burl and his tribesmen feasted, chattering in hushed tones of the +remarkable fact that men ate meat of their own killing. + + + + +_6. RED DUST_ + + +It was very fortunate indeed that the feast took place when it did. Two +days later it would probably have been impossible, and three days later +it would have been too late to do any good. But coming when it did, it +made the difference which was all the difference in the world. + +Only thirty hours after the feasting which followed the death of the +clotho spider, Burl's fellows--from Jon to Dor to Tet and Dik and +Saya--had come to know a numb despair which the other creatures of his +world were simply a bit too stupid to achieve. + +It was night. There was darkness over all the lowlands, and over all the +area of perhaps a hundred square miles which the humans of Burl's +acquaintance really knew. He, alone of his tribe, had been as much as +forty miles from the foraging-ground over which they wandered. At any +given time the tribe clung together for comfort, venturing only as far +as was necessary to find food. Although the planet possessed continents, +they knew less than a good-sized county of it. The planet owned oceans, +and they knew only small brooks and one river which, where they knew it, +was assuredly less than two hundred yards across. And they faced stark +disaster that was not strictly a local one, but beyond their experience +and hopelessly beyond their ability to face. + +They were superior to the insects about them only in the fact they +realized what was threatening them. + +The disaster was the red puffballs. + +But it was night. The soft, blanketing darkness of a cloud-wrapped world +lay all about. Burl sat awake, wrapped in his magnificent velvet cloak, +his spear beside him and the yard-long golden plumes of a moth's +antennae bound to his forehead for a headdress. About him and his +tribesmen were the swollen shapes of fungi, hiding the few things that +could be seen in darkness. From the low-hanging clouds the nightly rain +dripped down. Now a drop and then another drop; slowly, deliberately, +persistently moisture fell from the skies. + +There was other sounds. Things flew through the blackness +overhead--moths with mighty wing-beats that sometimes sent rhythmic +wind-stirrings down to the tribe in its hiding-place. There were the +deep pulsations of sound made by night-beetles aloft. There were the +harsh noises of grasshoppers--they were rare--senselessly advertising +their existence to nearby predators. Not too far from where Burl brooded +came bright chirrupings where relatively small beetles roamed among the +mushroom-forests, singing cheerfully in deep bass voices. They were +searching for the underground tidbits which took the place of truffles +their ancestors had lived on back on Earth. + +All seemed to be as it had been since the first humans were cast away +upon this planet. And at night, indeed, the new danger subsided. The red +puffballs did not burst after sunset. Burl sat awake, brooding in a new +sort of frustration. He and all his tribe were plainly doomed--yet Burl +had experienced too many satisfying sensations lately to be willing to +accept the fact. + +The new red growths were everywhere. Months ago a storm-wind blew while +somewhere, not too far distant, other red puffballs were bursting and +sending their spores into the air. Since it was only a windstorm, there +was no rain to wash the air clean of the lethal dust. The new kind of +puffball--but perhaps it was not new: it could have thriven for +thousands of years where it was first thrown as a sport from a +genetically unstable parent--the new kind of puffball would not normally +be spread in this fashion. By chance it had. + +There were dozens of the things within a quarter-mile, hundreds within a +mile, and thousands upon thousands within the area the tribe normally +foraged in. Burl had seen them even forty miles away, as yet immature. +They would be deadly at one period alone--the time of their bursting. +But there were limitations even to the deadliness of the red puffballs, +though Burl had not yet discovered the fact. But as of now, they doomed +the tribe. + +One woman panted and moaned in her exhausted sleep, a little way from +where Burl tried to solve the problem presented by the tribe. Nobody +else attempted to think it out. The others accepted doom with fatalistic +hopelessness. Burl's leadership might mean extra food, but nothing could +counter the doom awaiting them--so their thoughts seemed to run. + +But Burl doggedly reviewed the facts in the darkness, while the humans +about him slept the sleep of those without hope and even without +rebellion. There had been many burstings of the crimson puffballs. As +many as four and five of the deadly dust-clouds had been seen spouting +into the air at the same time. A small boy of the tribe had breathlessly +told of seeing a hunting-spider killed by the red dust. Lana, the +half-grown girl, had come upon one of the gigantic rhinoceros-beetles +belly-up on the ground, already the prey of ants. She had snatched a +huge, meat-filled joint and run away, faster than the ants could follow. +A far-ranging man had seen a butterfly, with wings ten yards across, die +in a dust-cloud. Another woman--Cori--had been nearby when a red cloud +settled slowly over long, solid lines of black worker-ants bound on some +unknown mission. Later she saw other workers carrying the dead bodies +back to the ant-city to be used for food. + +Burl still sat wakeful and frustrated and enraged as the slow rain fell +upon the toadstools that formed the tribe's lurking-place. He doggedly +went over and over the problem. There were innumerable red puffballs. +Some had burst. The others undoubtedly would burst. Anything that +breathed the red dust died. With thousands of the puffballs around them +it was unthinkable that any human in this place could escape breathing +the red dust and dying. But it had not always been so. There had been a +time when there were no red puffballs here. + +Burl's eyes moved restlessly over the sleeping forms limned by a patch +of fox-fire. The feathery plumes rising from his head were outlined +softly by the phosphorescence. His face was lined with a frown as he +tried to think his own and his fellows' way out of the predicament. +Without realizing it, Burl had taken it upon himself to think for his +tribe. He had no reason to. It was simply a natural thing for him to do +so, now that he had learned to think--even though his efforts were crude +and painful as yet. + +Saya woke with a start and stared about. There had been no +alarm,--merely the usual noises of distant murders and the songs of +singers in the night. Burl moved restlessly. Saya stood up quietly, her +long hair flowing about her. Sleepy-eyed, she moved to be near Burl. She +sank to the ground beside him, sitting up--because the hiding-place was +crowded and small--and dozed fitfully. Presently her head drooped to one +side. It rested against his shoulder. She slept again. + +This simple act may have been the catalyst which gave Burl the solution +to the problem. Some few days before, Burl had been in a far-away place +where there was much food. At the time he'd thought vaguely of finding +Saya and bringing her to that place. He remembered now that the red +puffballs flourished there as well as here--but there had been other +dangers in between, so the only half-formed purpose had been abandoned. +Now, though, with Saya's head resting against his shoulder, he +remembered the plan. And then the stroke of genius took place. + +He formed the idea of a journey which was not a going-after-food. This +present dwelling-place of the tribe had been free of red puffballs until +only recently. There must be other places where there were no red +puffballs. He would take Saya and his tribesmen to such a place. + +It was really genius. The people of Burl's tribe had no purposes, only +needs--for food and the like. Burl had achieved abstract thought--which +previously had not been useful on the forgotten planet and, therefore, +not practised. But it was time for humankind to take a more fitting +place in the unbalanced ecological system of this nightmare world, time +to change that unbalance in favor of humans. + +When dawn came, Burl had not slept at all. He was all authority and +decision. He had made plans. + +He spoke sternly, loudly--which frightened people conditioned to be +furtive--holding up his spear as he issued commands. His timid +tribesfolk obeyed him meekly. They felt no loyalty to him or confidence +in his decisions yet, but they were beginning to associate obedience to +him with good things. Food, for one. + +Before the day fully came, they made loads of the remaining edible +mushroom and uneaten meat. It was remarkable for humans to leave their +hiding-place while they still had food to eat, but Burl was implacable +and scowling. Three men bore spears at Burl's urging. He brandished his +long shaft confidently as he persuaded the other three to carry clubs. +They did so reluctantly, even though previously they had killed ants +with clubs. Spears, they felt, would have been better. They wouldn't be +so close to the prey then. + +The sky became gray over all its expanse. The indefinite bright area +which marked the position of the sun became established. It was part-way +toward the center of the sky when the journey began. Burl had, of +course, no determined course, only a destination--safety. He had been +carried south, in his misadventure on the river. There were red +puffballs to southward, therefore he ruled out that direction. He could +have chosen the east and come upon an ocean, but no safety from the red +spore-dust. Or he could have chosen the north. It was pure chance that +he headed west. + +He walked confidently through the gruesome world of the lowlands, +holding his spear in a semblance of readiness. Clad as he was, he made a +figure at once valiant and rather pathetic. It was not too sensible for +one young man--even one who had killed two spiders--to essay leading a +tiny tribe of fearful folk across a land of monstrous ferocity and +incredible malignance, armed only with a spear from a dead insect's +armor. It was absurd to dress up for the enterprise in a velvety cloak +made of a moth's wing, blue moth-fur for a loin-cloth, and merely +beautiful golden plumes bobbing above his forehead. + +Probably, though, that gorgeousness had a good effect upon his +followers. They surely could not reassure each other by their numbers! +There was a woman with a baby in her arms--Cori. Three children of nine +or ten, unable to resist the instinct to play even on so perilous a +journey, ate almost constantly of the lumps of foodstuff they had been +ordered to carry. After them came Dik, a long-legged adolescent boy with +eyes that roved anxiously about. Behind him were two men. Dor with a +short spear and Jak hefting a club, both of them badly frightened at the +idea of fleeing from dangers they knew and were terrified by, to other +dangers unknown and, consequently, more to be feared. The others trailed +after them. Tet was rear-guard. Burl had separated the pair of boys to +make them useful. Together they were worthless. + +It was a pathetic caravan, in a way. In all the rest of the Galaxy, man +was the dominant creature. There was no other planet from one rim to the +other where men did not build their cities or settlements with +unconscious arrogance--completely disregarding the wishes of lesser +things. Only on this planet did men hide from danger rather than destroy +it. Only here could men be driven from their place by lower life-forms. +And only here would a migration be made on foot, with men's eyes +fearful, their bodies poised to flee at sight of something stronger and +more deadly than themselves. + +They marched, straggling a little, with many waverings aside from a +fixed line. Once Dik saw the trap-door of a trapdoor-spider's lair. They +halted, trembling, and went a long way out of their intended path to +avoid it. Once they saw a great praying-mantis a good half-mile off, and +again they deviated from their proper route. + +Near midday their way was blocked. As they moved onward, a great, +high-pitched sound could be heard ahead of them. Burl stopped; his face +grew pinched. But it was only a stridulation, not the cries of creatures +being devoured. It was a horde of ants by the thousands and hundreds of +thousands, and nothing else. + +Burl went ahead to scout. And he did it because he did not trust anybody +else to have the courage or intelligence to return with a report, +instead of simply running away if the news were bad. But it happened to +be a sort of action which would help to establish his position as leader +of his tribe. + +Burl moved forward cautiously and presently came to an elevation from +which he could see the cause of the tremendous waves of sound that +spread out in all directions from the level plain before him. He waved +to his followers to join him, and stood looking down at the +extraordinary sight. + +When they reached his side--and Saya was first--the spectacle had not +diminished. For quite half a mile in either direction the earth was +black with ants. It was a battle of opposing armies from rival +ant-cities. They snapped and bit at each other. Locked in vise-like +embraces, they rolled over and over upon the ground, trampled underfoot +by hordes of their fellows who surged over them to engage in equally +suicidal combat. There was, of course, no thought of surrender or of +quarter. They fought by thousands of pairs, their jaws seeking to crush +each other's armor, snapping at each other's antennae, biting at each +other's eyes.... + +The noise was not like that of army-ants. This was the agonizing sound +of ants being dismembered while still alive. Some of the creatures had +only one or two or three legs left, yet struggled fiercely to entangle +another enemy before they died. There were mad cripples, fighting +insanely with head and thorax only, their abdomens sheared away. The +whining battle-cry of the multitude made a deafening uproar. + +From either side of the battleground a wide path led back toward +separate ant-cities which were invisible from Burl's position. These +highways were marked by hurrying groups of ants--reinforcements rushing +to the fight. Compared to the other creatures of this world the ants +were small, but no lumbering beetle dared to march insolently in their +way, nor did any carnivores try to prey upon them. They were dangerous. +Burl and his tribesfolk were the only living things remaining near the +battle-field--with one single exception. + +That exception was itself a tribe of ants, vastly less in number than +the fighting creatures, and greatly smaller in size as well. Where the +combatants were from a foot to fourteen inches long, these guerilla-ants +were no more than the third of a foot in length. They hovered +industriously at the edge of the fighting, not as allies to either +nation, but strictly on their own account. Scurrying among the larger, +fighting ants with marvelous agility, they carried off piecemeal the +bodies of the dead and valiantly slew the more gravely wounded for the +same purpose. + +They swarmed over the fighting-ground whenever the tide of battle +receded. Caring nothing for the origin of the quarrel and espousing +neither side, these opportunists busily salvaged the dead and +still-living debris of the battle for their own purposes. + +Burl and his followers were forced to make a two-mile detour to avoid +the battle. The passage between bodies of scurrying reinforcements was a +matter of some difficulty. Burl hurried the others past a route to the +front, reeking of formic acid, over which endless regiments and +companies of ants moved frantically to join in the fight. They were +intensely excited. Antennae waving wildly, they rushed to the front and +instantly flung themselves into the fray, becoming lost and +indistinguishable in the black mass of fighting creatures. + +The humans passed precariously between two hurrying battalions--Dik and +Tet pausing briefly to burden themselves with prey--and hurried on to +leave as many miles as possible behind them before nightfall. They never +knew any more about the battle. It could have started over anything at +all--two ants from the different cities may have disputed some tiny bit +of carrion and soon been reinforced by companions until the military +might of both cities was engaged. Once it had started, of course, the +fighters knew whom to fight if not why they did so. The inhabitants of +the two cities had different smells, which served them as uniforms. + +But the outcome of the war would hardly matter. Not to the fighters, +certainly. There were many red mushrooms in this area. If either of the +cities survived at all, it would be because its nursery-workers lived +upon stored food as they tended the grubs until the time of the spouting +red dust had ended. + +Burl's folk saw many of the red puffballs burst during the day. More +than once they came upon empty, flaccid parchment sacs. More often still +they came upon red puffballs not yet quite ready to emit their murderous +seed. + +That first night the tribe hid among the bases of giant puffballs of a +more familiar sort. When touched they would shoot out a puff of white +powder resembling smoke. The powder was harmless fortunately and the +tribe knew that fact. Although not toxic, the white powder was identical +in every other way to the terrible red dust from which the tribe fled. + +That night Burl slept soundly. He had been without rest for two days and +a night. And he was experienced in journeying to remote places. He knew +that they were no more dangerous than familiar ones. But the rest of the +tribe, and even Saya, were fearful and terrified. They waited timorously +all through the dark hours for menacing sounds to crash suddenly through +the steady dripping of the nightly rain around them. + +The second day's journey was not unlike the first. The following day, +they came upon a full ten-acre patch of giant cabbages bigger than a +family dwelling. Something in the soil, perhaps, favored vegetation over +fungi. The dozens of monstrous vegetables were the setting for riotous +life: great slugs ate endlessly of the huge green leaves--and things +preyed on them; bees came droning to gather the pollen of the flowers. +And other things came to prey on the predators in their turn. + +There was one great cabbage somewhat separate from the rest. After a +long examination of the scene, Burl daringly led quaking Jon and Jak to +the attack. Dor splendidly attacked elsewhere, alone. When the tribe +moved on, there was much meat, and everyone--even the children--wore +loin-cloths of incredibly luxurious fur. + +There were perils, too. On the fifth day of the tribe's journey Burl +suddenly froze into stillness. One of the hairy tarantulas which lived +in burrows with a concealed trap-door at ground-level, had fallen upon a +scarabeus beetle and was devouring it only a hundred yards ahead. The +tribesfolk trembled as Burl led them silently back and around by a safe +detour. + +But all these experiences were beginning to have an effect. It was +becoming a matter of course that Burl should give orders which others +should obey. It was even becoming matter-of-fact that the possession of +food was not a beautiful excuse to hide from all danger, eating and +dozing until all the food was gone. Very gradually the tribe was +developing the notion that the purpose of existence was not solely to +escape awareness of peril, but to foresee and avoid it. They had no +clear-cut notion of purpose as yet. They were simply outgrowing +purposelessness. After a time they even looked about them with, dim +stirrings of an attitude other than a desperate alertness for danger. + +Humans from any other planet, surely, would have been astounded at the +vistas of golden mushrooms stretching out in forests on either hand and +the plains with flaking surfaces given every imaginable color by the +moulds and rusts and tiny flowering yeasts growing upon them. They would +have been amazed by the turgid pools the journeying tribe came upon, +where the water was concealed by a thick layer of slime through which +enormous bubbles of foul-smelling gas rose to enlarge to preposterous +size before bursting abruptly. + +Had they been as ill-armed as Burl's folk, though, visitors from other +planets would have been at least as timorous. Lacking highly specialized +knowledge of the ways of insects on this world even well-armed visitors +would have been in greater danger. + +But the tribe went on without a single casualty. They had fleeting +glimpses of the white spokes of symmetrical spider-webs whose least +thread no member of the tribe could break. + +Their immunity from disaster--though in the midst of danger--gave them a +certain all-too-human concentration upon discomfort. Lacking calamities, +they noticed their discomforts and grew weary of continual traveling. A +few of the men complained to Burl. + +For answer, he pointed back along the way they had come. To the right a +reddish dust-cloud was just settling, and to the rear rose another as +they looked. + +And on this day a thing happened which at once gave the complainers the +rest they asked for, and proved the fatality of remaining where they +were. A child ran aside from the path its elders were following. The +ground here had taken on a brownish hue. As the child stirred up the +surface mould with his feet, dust that had settled was raised up again. +It was far too thin to have any visible color. But the child suddenly +screamed, strangling. The mother ran frantically to snatch him up. + +The red dust was no less deadly merely because it had settled to the +ground. If a storm-wind came now--but they were infrequent under the +forgotten planet's heavy bank of clouds--the fallen red dust could be +raised up again and scattered about until there would be no living thing +anywhere which would not gasp and writhe--and die. + +But the child would not die. He would suffer terribly and be weak for +days. In the morning he could be carried. + +When night began to darken the sky, the tribe searched for a +hiding-place. They came upon a shelf-like cliff, perhaps twenty or +thirty feet high, slanting toward the line of the tribesmen's travel. +Burl saw black spots in it--openings. Burrows. He watched them as the +tribe drew near. No bees or wasps went in or out. He watched long enough +to be sure. + +When they were close, he was certain. Ordering the others to wait, he +went forward to make doubly sure. The appearance of the holes reassured +him. Dug months before by mining-bees, gone or dead now, the entrances +to the burrows were weathered and bedraggled. Burl explored, first +sniffing carefully at each opening. They were empty. This would be +shelter for the night. He called his followers, and they crawled into +the three-foot tunnels to hide. + +Burl stationed himself near the outer edge of one of them to watch for +signs of danger. Night had not quite fallen. Jon and Dor, hungry, went +off to forage a little way beyond the cliff. They would be cautious and +timid, taking no risks whatever. + +Burl waited for the return of his explorers. Meanwhile he fretted over +the meaning of the stricken child. Stirred-up red dust was dangerous. +The only time when there would be no peril from it would be at night, +when the dripping rainfall of the dark hours turned the surface of this +world into thin shine. It occurred to Burl that it would be safe to +travel at night, so far as the red dust was concerned. He rejected the +idea instantly. It was unthinkable to travel at night for innumerable +other reasons. + +Frowning, he poked his spear idly at a tumbled mass of tiny parchment +cup-like things near the entrance of a cave. And instantly movement +became visible. Fifty, sixty, a hundred infinitesimal creatures, no more +than half an inch in length, made haste to hide themselves among the +thimble-sized paperlike cups. They moved with extraordinary clumsiness +and immense effort, seemingly only by contortions of their +greenish-black bodies. Burl had never seen any creature progress in such +a slow and ineffective fashion. He drew one of the small creatures back +with the point of his spear and examined it from a safe distance. + +He picked it up on his spear and brought it close to his eyes. The thing +redoubled its frenzied movements. It slipped off the spear and plopped +upon the soft moth-fur he wore about his middle. Instantly, as if it +were a conjuring-trick, the insect vanished. Burl searched for minutes +before he found it hidden deep in the long, soft hairs of his garment, +resting motionless and seemingly at ease. + +It was the larval form of a beetle, fragments of whose armor could be +seen near the base of the clayey cliffside. Hidden in the remnants of +its egg-casings, the brood of minute things had waited near the opening +of the mining-bee tunnel. It was their gamble with destiny when +mining-bee grubs had slept through metamorphosis and come uncertainly +out of the tunnel for the first time, that some or many of the larvae +might snatch the instant's chance to fasten to the bees' legs and writhe +upward to an anchorage in their fur. It happened that this particular +batch of eggs had been laid after the emergence of the grubs. They had +no possible chance of fulfilling their intended role as parasites on +insects of the order hymenoptera. They were simply and matter-of-factly +doomed by the blindness of instinct, which had caused them to be placed +where they could not possibly survive. + +On the other hand, if one or many of them had found a lurking-place, the +offspring of their host would have been doomed. The place filled by +oil-beetle larvae in the scheme of things is the place--or one of the +places--reserved for creatures that limit the number of mining-bees. +When a bee-louse-infested mining-bee has made a new tunnel, stocked it +with honey for its young, and then laid one egg to float on that pool of +nourishment and hatch and feed and ultimately grow to be another +mining-bee--at that moment of egg-laying, one small bee-louse detaches +itself. It remains zestfully in the provisioned cell to devour the egg +for which the provisions were accumulated. It happily consumes those +provisions and, in time, an oil-beetle crawls out of the tunnel a +mining-bee so laboriously prepared. + +Burl had no difficulty in detaching the small insect and casting it +away, but in doing so he discovered that others had hidden themselves in +his fur without his knowledge. He plucked them away and found more. +While savages can be highly tolerant of vermin too small to be seen, +they feel a peculiar revolt against serving as host to creatures of +sensible size. Burl reacted violently--as once he had reacted to the +discovery of a leech clinging to his heel. He jerked off his loin-cloth +and beat it savagely with his spear. + +When it was clean, he still felt a wholly unreasonable sense of +humiliation. It was not clearly thought out, of course. Burl feared huge +insects too much to hate them. But that small creatures should fasten +upon him produced a completely irrational feeling of outrage. For the +first time in very many years or centuries a human being upon the +forgotten planet felt that he had been insulted. His dignity had been +assailed. Burl raged. + +But as he raged, a triumphant shout came from nearby. Jon and Dor were +returning from their foraging, loaded down with edible mushroom. They, +also, had taken a step upward toward the natural dignity of men. They +had so far forgotten their terror as to shout in exultation at their +find of food. Up to now, Burl had been the only man daring to shout. Now +there were two others. + +In his overwrought state this was also enraging. The result of hurt +vanity on two counts was jealousy, and the result of jealousy was a +crazy foolhardiness. Burl ground his teeth and insanely resolved to do +something so magnificent, so tremendous, so utterly breathtaking that +there could be no possible imitation by anybody else. His thinking was +not especially clear. Part of his motivation had been provided by the +oil-beetle larvae. He glared about him at the deepening dusk, seeking +some exploit, some glamorous feat, to perform immediately, even in the +night. + +He found one. + + + + +_7. JOURNEY THROUGH DEATH_ + + +It was late dusk and the reddened clouds overhead were deepening +steadily toward black. Dark shadows hung everywhere. The clay cliff cut +off all vision to one side, but elsewhere Burl could see outward until +the graying haze blotted out the horizon. Here and there, bees droned +homeward to hive or burrow. Sometimes a slender, graceful wasp passed +overhead, its wings invisible by the swiftness of their vibration. + +A few butterflies lingered hungrily in the distance, seeking the few +things they could still feast upon. No moth had wakened yet to the +night. The cloud-bank grew more sombre. The haze seemed to close in and +shrink the world that Burl could see. + +He watched, raging, for the sight that would provide him with the +triumph to end all triumphs among his followers. The soft, down-reaching +fingers of the night touched here and there and the day ended at those +spots. Then, from the heart of the deep redness to the west a flying +creature came. It was a beautiful thing--a yellow emperor +butterfly--flapping eastward with great sail-like velvet wings that +seemed black against the sunset. Burl saw it sweep across the incredible +sky, alight delicately, and disappear behind a mass of toadstools +clustered so thickly they seemed nearly a hillock and not a mass of +growing things. + +Then darkness closed in completely, but Burl still stared where the +yellow emperor had landed. There was that temporary, utter quiet when +day-things were hidden and night-things had not yet ventured out. +Fox-fire glowed. Patches of pale phosphorescence--luminous +mushrooms--shone faintly in the dark. + +Presently Burl moved through the night. He could imagine the yellow +emperor in its hiding-place, delicately preening slender limbs before it +settled down to rest until the new day dawned. He had noted landmarks, +to guide himself. A week earlier and his blood would have run cold at +the bare thought of doing what he did now. In mere cool-headed +detachment he would have known that what he did was close to madness. +But he was neither cool-headed nor detached. + +He crossed the clear ground before the low cliff. But for the fox-fire +beacons he would have been lost instantly. The slow drippings of rain +began. The sky was dead black. Now was the time for night-things to fly, +and male tarantulas to go seeking mates and prey. It was definitely no +time for adventuring. + +Burl moved on. He found the close-packed toadstools by the process of +running into them in the total obscurity. He fumbled, trying to force +his way between them. It could not be done; they grew too close and too +low. He raged at this impediment. He climbed. + +This was insanity. Burl stood on spongy mushroom-stuff that quivered and +yielded under his weight. Somewhere something boomed upward, rising on +fast-beating wings into blackness. He heard the pulsing drone of +four-inch mosquitos close by. He moved forward, the fungus support +swaying, so that he did not so much walk as stagger over the +close-packed mushroom heads. He groped before him with spear and panted +a little. There was a part of him which was bitterly afraid, but he +raged the more furiously because if once he gave way even to caution, it +would turn to panic. + +Burl would have made a strange spectacle in daylight gaudily clothed as +he was in soft blue fur and velvet cloak, staggering over swaying +insecurity, coddling ferocity in himself against the threat of fear. + +Then his spear told him there was emptiness ahead. Something moved, +below. He heard and felt it stirring the toadstool-stalks on which he +stood. + +Burl raised his spear, grasping it in both hands. He plunged down with +it, stabbing fiercely. + +The spear struck something vastly more resistant than any mushroom could +be. It penetrated. Then the stabbed thing moved as Burl landed upon it, +flinging him off his feet, but he clung to the firmly imbedded weapon. +And if his mouth had opened for a yell of victory as he plunged down, +the nature of the surface on which he found himself, and the kind of +movement he felt, turned that yell into a gasp of horror. + +It wasn't the furry body of a butterfly he had landed on; his spear +hadn't pierced such a creature's soft flesh. He had leaped upon the +broad, hard back of a huge, meat-eating, nocturnal beetle. His spear had +pierced not the armor, but the leathery joint-tissue between head and +thorax. + +The giant creature rocketed upward with Burl clinging to his spear. He +held fast with an agonized strength. His mount rose from the blackness +of the ground into the many times more terrifying blackness of the air. +It rose up and up. If Burl could have screamed, he would have done so, +but he could not cry out. He could only hold fast, glassy-eyed. + +Then he dropped. Wind roared past him. The great insect was clumsy at +flying. All beetles are. Burl's weight and the pain it felt made its +flying clumsier still. There was a semi-liquid crashing and an impact. +Burl was torn loose and hurled away. He crashed into the spongy top of a +mushroom and came to rest with his naked shoulder hanging halfway over +some invisible drop. He struggled. + +He heard the whining drone of his attempted prey. It rocketed aloft +again. But there was something wrong with it. With his weight applied to +the spear as he was torn free, Burl had twisted the weapon in the wound. +It had driven deeper, multiplying the damage of the first stab. + +The beetle crashed to earth again, nearby. As Burl struggled again, the +mushroom-stalk split and let him gently to the ground. + +He heard the flounderings of the great beetle in the darkness. It +mounted skyward once more, its wing-beats no longer making a sustained +note. It thrashed the air irregularly and wildly. + +Then it crashed again. + +There was seeming silence, save for the steady drip-drip of the rain. +And Burl came out of his half-mad fear: he suddenly realized that he +had slain a victim even more magnificent than a spider, because this +creature was meat. + +He found himself astonishedly running toward the spot where the beetle +had last fallen. + +But he heard it struggle aloft once more. It was wounded to death. Burl +felt certain of it this time. It floundered in mid-air and crashed +again. + +He was within yards of it before he checked himself. Now he was +weaponless, and the gigantic insect flung itself about madly on the +ground, striking out with colossal wings and limbs, fighting it knew not +what. It struggled to fly, crashed, and fought its way off the +ground--ever more weakly--then smashed again into mushrooms. There it +floundered horribly in the darkness. + +Burl drew near and waited. It was still, but pain again drove it to a +senseless spasm of activity. + +Then it struck against something. There was a ripping noise and +instantly the close, peppery, burning smell of the red dust was in the +air. The beetle had floundered into one of the close-packed red +puffballs, tightly filled with the deadly red spores. The red dust would +not normally have been released at night. With the nightly rain, it +would not travel so far or spread so widely. + +Burl fled, panting. + +Behind him he heard his victim rise one last time, spurred to +impossible, final struggle by the anguish caused by the breathed-in red +dust. It rose clumsily into the darkness in its death-throes and crashed +to the ground again for the last time. + +In time to come, Burl and his followers might learn to use the red-dust +puffballs as weapons--but not how to spread them beyond their normal +range. But now, Burl was frightened. He moved hastily sidewise. The dust +would travel down-wind. He got out of its possible path. + +There could be no exultation where the red dust was. Burl suddenly +realized what had happened to him. He had been carried aloft an unknown +though not-great distance, in an unknown direction. He was separated +from his tribe, with no faintest idea how to find them in the darkness. +And it was night. + +He crouched under the nearest huge toadstool and waited for the dawn, +listening dry-throated for the sound of death coming toward him through +the night. + +But only the wind-beats of night-fliers came to his ears, and the +discordant notes of gray-bellied truffle-beetles as they roamed the +mushroom thickets, seeking the places beneath which--so their adapted +instincts told them--fungoid dainties, not too much unlike the truffles +of Earth, awaited the industrious miner. And, of course, there was that +eternal, monotonous dripping of the raindrops, falling at irregular +intervals from the sky. + +Red puffballs did not burst at night. They would not burst anyhow, +except at one certain season of their growth. But Burl and his folk had +so far encountered the over-hasty ones, bursting earlier than most. The +time of ripeness was very nearly here, though. When day came again, and +the chill dampness of the night was succeeded by the warmth of the +morning, almost the first thing Burl saw in the gray light was a tall +spouting of brownish-red stuff leaping abruptly into the air from a +burst red parchment-like sphere. + +He stood up and looked anxiously all around. Here and there, all over +the landscape, slowly and at intervals, the plumes of fatal red sprang +into the air. There was nothing quite like it anywhere else. An ancient +man, inhabiting Earth, might have likened the appearance to that of a +scattered and leisurely bombardment. But Burl had no analogy for them. + +He saw something hardly a hundred yards from where he had hidden during +the night. The dead beetle lay there, crumpled and limp. Burl eyed it +speculatively. Then he saw something that filled him with elation. The +last crash of the beetle to the ground had driven his spear deeply +between the joints of the corselet and neck. Even if the red dust had +not finished the creature, the spear-point would have ended its life. + +He was thrilled once more by his superlative greatness. He made due note +that he was a mighty slayer. He took the antennae as proof of his valor +and hacked off a great barb-edged leg for meat. And then he remembered +that he did not know how to find his fellow-tribesmen. He had no idea +which way to go. + +Even a civilized man would have been at a loss, though he would have +hunted for an elevation from which to look for the cliff hiding-place of +the tribe. But Burl had not yet progressed so far. His wild ride of the +night before had been at random, and the chase after the wounded beetle +no less dictated by chance. There was no answer. + +He set off anxiously, searching everywhere. But he had to be alert for +all the dangers of an inimical world while keeping, at the same time, an +extremely sharp eye out for bursting red puffballs. + +At the end of an hour he thought he saw familiar things. Then he +recognized the spot. He had come back to the dead beetle. It was already +the center of a mass of small black bodies which pulled and hacked at +the tough armor, gnawing out great lumps of flesh to be carried to the +nearest ant-city. + +Burl set off again, very carefully avoiding any place that he recognized +as having been seen that morning. Sometimes he walked through +mushroom-thickets--dangerous places to be in--and sometimes over +relatively clear ground colored exotically with varicolored fungi. More +than once he saw the clouds of red stuff spurting in the distance. Deep +anxiety filled him. He had no idea that there were such things as points +of the compass. He knew only that he needed desperately to find his +tribesfolk again. + +They, of course, had given him up for dead. He had vanished in the +night. Old Tama complained of him shrilly. The night, to them, meant +death. Jon quaked watchfully all through it. When Burl did not come to +the feast of mushroom that Jon and Dor had brought back, they sought +him. They even called timidly into the darkness. They heard the +throbbing of huge wings as a great creature rose desperately into the +sky, but they did not associate that sound with Burl. If they had, they +would have been instantly certain of his fate. + +As it was, the tribe's uneasiness grew into terror which rapidly turned +to despair. They began to tremble, wondering what they would do with no +bold chieftain to guide them. He was the first man to command allegiance +from others in much too long a period, on the forgotten planet, but the +submission of his followers had been the more complete for its novelty. +His loss was the more appalling. Burl had mistaken the triumphant shout +of the foragers. He'd thought it independence of him--rivalry. Actually, +the men dared to shout only because they felt secure under his +leadership. When they accepted the fact that he had vanished--and to +disappear in the night had always meant death--their old fears and +timidity returned. To them it was added despair. + +They huddled together and whispered to one another of their fright. They +waited in trembling silence through all the long night. Had a +hunting-spider appeared, they would have fled in as many directions as +there were people, and undoubtedly all would have perished. But day came +again, and they looked into each other's eyes and saw the self-same +fear. Saya was probably the most pitiful of the group. Her face was +white and drawn beyond that of any one else. + +They did not move when day brightened. They remained about the +bee-tunnels, speaking in hushed tones, huddled together, searching all +the horizon for enemies. Saya would not eat, but sat still, staring +before her in numbed grief. Burl was dead. + +Atop the low cliff a red puffball glistened in the morning light. Its +tough skin was taut and bulging, resisting the pressure of the spores +within. Slowly, as the morning wore on, some of the moisture that kept +the skin stretchable dried. The parchment-like stuff contracted. The +tautness of the spore-packed envelope grew greater. It became +insupportable. + +With a ripping sound, the tough skin split across and a rush of the +compressed spores shot skyward. + +The tribesmen saw and cried out and fled. The red stuff drifted down +past the cliff-edge. It drifted toward the humans. They ran from it. Jon +and Tama ran fastest. Jak and Cori and the other were not far behind. +Saya trailed, in her despair. + +Had Burl been there, matters would have been different. He had already +such an ascendancy over the minds of the others that even in panic they +would have looked to see what he did. And he would have dodged the +slowly drifting death-cloud by day, as he had during the night. But his +followers ran blindly. + +As Saya fled after the others she heard shrieks of fright to the left +and ran faster. She passed by a thick mass of distorted fungi in which +there was a sudden stirring and panic lent wings to her feet. She +fled blindly, panting. Ahead was a great mass of stuff--red +puffballs--showing here and there among great fanlike growths, some +twelve feet high, that looked like sponges. + +She fled past them and swerved to hide herself from anything that might +be pursuing by sight. Her foot slipped on the slimy body of a shell-less +snail and she fell heavily, her head striking a stone. She lay still. + +Almost as if at a signal a red puffball burst among the fanlike growths. +A thick, dirty-red cloud of dust shot upward, spread and billowed and +began to settle slowly toward the ground again. It moved as it settled +flowing over the inequalities of die ground as a monstrous snail or +leach might have done, sucking from all breathing creatures the life +they had within them. It was a hundred yards away, then fifty, then +thirty.... + +Had any member of the tribe watched it, the red dust might have seemed +malevolently intelligent. But when the edges of the dust-cloud were no +more than twenty yards from Saya's limp body, an opposing breeze sprang +up. It was a vagrant, fitful little breeze that halted the red cloud and +threw it into some confusion, sending it in a new direction. It passed +Saya without hurting her, though one of its misty tendrils reached out +as if to snatch at her in slow-motion. But it passed her by. + +Saya lay motionless on the ground. Only her breast rose and fell +shallowly. A tiny pool of red gathered near her head. + +Some thirty feet from where she lay, there were three miniature +toadstools in a clump, bases so close together that they seemed but one. +From between two of them, however, two tufts of reddish thread appeared. +They twinkled back and forth and in and out. As if reassured, two +slender antennae followed, then bulging eyes and a small, black body +with bright-red scalloped markings upon it. + +It was a tiny beetle no more than eight inches long--a sexton or +burying-beetle. Drawing near Saya's body it scurried onto her flesh. It +went from end to end of her figure in a sort of feverish haste. Then it +dived into the ground beneath her shoulder, casting back a little shower +of hastily-dug dirt as it disappeared. + +Ten minutes later, another small creature appeared, precisely like the +first. Upon the heels of the second came a third. Each made the same +hasty examination and dived under her unmoving form. + +Presently the ground seemed to billow at a spot along Saya's side and +then at another. Ten minutes after the arrival of the third beetle, a +little rampart had reared itself all about Saya's body, following her +outlines precisely. Then her body moved slightly, in little jerks, +seeming to settle perhaps half an inch into the ground. + +The burying-beetles were of that class of creatures which exploited the +bodies of the fallen. Working from below, they excavated the earth. When +there was a hollow space below they turned on their backs and thrust up +with their legs, jerking at the body until it sank into the space they +had made ready. The process would be repeated until at last all their +dead treasures had settled down below the level of the surrounding +ground. The loosened dirt then fell in at the sides, completing the +inhumation. Then, in the underground darkness, it was the custom for the +beetles to feast magnificently, gorging themselves upon the food they +had hidden from other scavengers--and of course rearing their young also +upon its substance. + +Ants and flies were rivals of these beetles and not infrequently the +sexton-beetles came upon carrion after ants had taken their toll, and +when it already swarmed with maggots. But in this case Saya was not +dead. The fact that she still lived, though unconscious, was the factor +that had given the sexton-beetles this splendid opportunity. + +She breathed gently and irregularly, her face drawn with the sorrow of +the night before, while the desperately hurrying beetles swarmed about +beneath her body, channelling away the soil so she would sink lower and +lower into it. She descended slowly, a half-inch by a half-inch. The +bright-red tufts of thread appeared again and a beetle made its way to +the open air. It moved hastily about, inspecting the progress of the +work. + +It dived below again. Another inch and, after a long time, another, were +excavated. + +Matters still progressed when Burl stepped out from a group of +overshadowing toadstools and halted. He cast his eyes over the landscape +and was struck by its familiarity. He was, in fact, very near the spot +he had left the night before in that maniacal ride on the back of a +flying beetle. He moved back and forth, trying to account for the +feeling of recognition. + +He saw the low cliff, then, and moved eagerly toward it, passing within +fifty feet of Saya's body, now more than half-buried in the ground. The +loose dirt around the outline of her figure was beginning to topple in +little rivulets upon her. One of her shoulders was already half-screened +from view. Burl passed on, unseeing. + +He hurried a little. In a moment he recognized his location exactly. +There were the mining-bee burrows. There was a thrown-away lump of +edible mushroom, cast aside as the tribesfolk fled. + +His feet stirred up a fine dust, and he stopped short. A red puffball +had burst here. It fully accounted for the absence of the tribe, and +Burl sweated in sudden fear. He thought instantly of Saya. He went +carefully to make sure. This was, absolutely, the hiding place of the +tribe. There was another mushroom-fragment. There was a spear, thrown +down by one of the men in his flight. Red dust had settled upon the +spear and the mushroom-fragments. + +Burl turned back, hurrying again, but taking care to disturb the dust no +more than he could possibly help. + +The little excavation into which Saya was sinking inch by inch was not +in his path. Her body no longer lay above the ground, but in it. Burl +went by, frantic with anxiety about the tribe, but about Saya most of +all. + +Her body quivered and sank a fraction into the ground. Half a dozen +small streams of earth were tumbling upon her. In minutes she would be +wholly hidden from view. + +Burl went to beat among the mushroom-thickets, in quest of the bodies of +his tribesfolk. They could have staggered out of the red dust and +collapsed beyond. He would have shouted, but the deep sense of +loneliness silenced him. His throat ached with grief. He searched on.... + +There was a noise. From a huge clump of toadstools--perhaps the very one +he had climbed over in the night--there came the sound of crashings and +the breaking of the spongy stuff. Twin tapering antennae appeared, and +then a monster beetle lurched into the open space, its ghastly mandibles +gaping sidewise. + +It was all of eight feet long and supported by six crooked, saw-toothed +legs. Huge, multiple eyes stared with preoccupation at the world. It +advanced deliberately with clankings and clashings as of a hideous +machine. Burl fled on the instant, running directly away from it. + +A little depression lay in the ground before him. He did not swerve, but +made to jump over it. As he leaped he saw the color of bare flesh, Saya, +limp and helpless, sinking slowly into the ground with tricklings of +dirt falling down to cover her. It seemed to Burl that she quivered a +little. + +Instantly there was a terrific struggle within Burl. Behind him was the +giant meat-eating beetle; beneath him was Saya whom he loved. There was +certain death lurching toward him on evilly crooked legs--and the life +he had hoped for lay in a shallow pit. Of course he thought Saya dead. + +Perhaps it was rage, or despair, or a simple human madness which made +him act otherwise than rationally. The things which raise humans above +brute creation, however, are only partly reasonable. Most human +emotions--especially the creditable ones--cannot be justified by reason, +and very few heroic actions are based upon logical thought. + +Burl whirled as he landed, his puny spear held ready. In his left hand +he held the haunch of a creature much like the one which clanked and +rattled toward him. With a yell of insane defiance--completely beyond +justification by reason--Burl flung that meat-filled leg at the monster. + +It hit. Undoubtedly, it hurt. The beetle seized it ferociously. It +crushed it. There was meat in it, sweet and juicy. + +The beetle devoured it. It forgot the man standing there, waiting for +death. It crunched the leg-joint of a cousin or brother, confusing the +blow with the missile that had delivered it. When the tidbit was +finished it turned and lumbered off to investigate another mushroom +thicket. It seemed to consider then an enemy had been conquered and +devoured and that normal life could go on. + +Then Burl stopped quickly, and dragged Saya from the grave the +sexton-beetles had labored so feverishly to provide for her. Crumbled +soil fell from her shoulders, from her face, and from her body. Three +little eight-inch beetles with black and red markings scurried for cover +in terrified haste. Burl carried Saya to a resting-place of soft mould +to mourn over her. + +He was a completely ignorant savage, save that he knew more of the ways +of insects than anybody anywhere else--the Ecological Service, which had +stocked this planet, not being excepted. To Burl the unconsciousness of +Saya was as death itself. Dumb misery smote him, and he laid her down +gently and quite literally wept. He had been beautifully pleased with +himself for having slain one flying beetle. But for Saya's seeming +death, he would have been almost unbearable with pride over having put +another to flight. But now he was merely a broken-hearted, very human +young man. + +But a long time later Saya opened her eyes and looked about +bewilderedly. + +They were in considerable danger for some time after that, because they +were oblivious to everything but each other. Saya rested in +half-incredulous happiness against Burl's shoulder as he told her +jerkily of his attempt on a night-bound butterfly, which turned out to +be a flying beetle that took him aloft. He told of his search for the +tribe and then his discovery of her apparently lifeless body. When he +spoke of the monster which had lurched from the mushroom thicket, and of +the desperation with which he had faced it, Saya looked at him with +warm, proud eyes. But Burl was abruptly struck with the remarkable +convenience of that discovery. If his tribesmen could secure an ample +supply of meat, they might defend themselves against attack by throwing +it to their attackers. In fact, insects were so stupid that almost any +object thrown quickly enough and fast enough, might be made to serve as +sacrifices instead of themselves. + +A timid, frightened whisper roused them from their absorption. They +looked up. The boy Dik stood some distance away, staring at them +wide-eyed, almost convinced that he looked upon the living dead. A +sudden movement on the part of either of them would have sent him +bolting away. Two or three other bobbing heads gazed affrightedly from +nearby hiding-places. Jon was poised for flight. + +The tribe had come back to its former hiding-place simply as a way to +reassemble. They had believed both Burl and Saya dead, and they accepted +Burl's death as their own doom. But now they stared. + +Burl spoke--fortunately without arrogance--and Dik and Tet came +timorously from their hiding-places. The others followed, the tribe +forming a frightened half-circle about the seated pair. Burl spoke again +and presently one of the bravest--Cori--dared to approach and touch him. +Instantly a babble of the crude labial language of the tribe broke out. +Awed exclamations and questions filled the air. + +But Burl, for once, showed some common sense. Instead of a vainglorious +recital, he merely cast down the long tapering antennae of the +flying-beetle. They looked, and recognized their origin. + +Then Burl curtly ordered Dor and Jak to make a chair of their hands for +Saya. She was weak from her fall and the loss of blood. The two men +humbly advanced and obeyed. Then Burl curtly ordered the march resumed. + +They went on, more slowly than on previous days, but none-the-less +steadily. Burl led them across-country, marching in advance with a +matter-of-fact alertness for signs of danger. He felt more confidence +than ever before. It was not fully justified, of course. Jon now +retrieved the spear he had discarded. The small party fairly bristled +with weapons. But Burl knew that they were liable to be cast away as +impediments if flight seemed necessary. + +As he led the way Burl began to think busily in the manner that only +leaders find necessary. He had taught his followers to kill ants for +food, though they were still uneasy about such adventures. He had led +them to attack great yellow grubs upon giant cabbages. But they had not +yet faced any actual danger, as he had done. He must drive them to face +something.... + +The opportunity came that same day, in late afternoon. To westward the +cloud-bank was barely beginning to show the colors that presage +nightfall, when a bumble-bee droned heavily overhead, making for its +home burrow. The little, straggling group of marching people looked up +and saw the scanty load of pollen packed in the stiff bristles of the +bee's hind-legs. It sped onward heavily, its almost transparent wings +mere blurs in the air. + +It was barely fifty feet above the ground. Burl dropped his glance and +tensed. A slender-waisted wasp was shooting upward from an ambush among +the noisome fungi of this plain. + +The bee swerved and tried to escape. The wasp over-hauled it. The bee +dodged frantically. It was a good four feet in length,--as large as the +wasp, certainly--but it was more heavily built and could not make the +speed of which the wasp was capable. It dodged with less agility. Twice, +in desperation, it did manage to evade the plunging dives of the wasp, +but the third time the two insects grappled in mid-air almost over the +heads of the humans. + +They tumbled downward in a clawing, biting, tangle of bodies and legs. +They hit the ground and rolled over and over. The bee struggled to +insert her barbed sting in the more supple body of her adversary. She +writhed and twisted desperately. + +But there came an instant of infinite confusion and the bee lay on her +back. The wasp suddenly moved with that ghastly skilled precision of a +creature performing an incredible feat instinctively, apparently unaware +that it is doing so. The dazed bee was swung upright in a peculiarly +artificial pose. The wasp's body curved, and its deadly, rapier-sharp +sting struck.... + +The bee was dead. Instantly. As if struck dead by lightning. The wasp +had stung in a certain place in the neck-parts where all the nerve-cords +pass. To sting there, the wasp had to bring its victim to a particular +pose. It was precisely the trick of a _desnucador_, the butcher who +kills cattle by severing the spinal cord. For the wasp's purposes the +bee had to be killed in this fashion and no other. + +Burl began to give low-toned commands to his followers. He knew what was +coming next, and so did they. When the sequel of the murder began he +moved forward, his tribesmen wavering after him. This venture was +actually one of the least dangerous they could attempt, but merely to +attack a wasp was a hair-raising idea. Only Burl's prestige plus their +knowledge made them capable of it. + +The second act of the murder-drama was gruesomeness itself. The +pirate-wasp was a carnivore, but this was the season when the wasps +raised young. Inevitably there was sweet honey in the half-filled crop +of the bee. Had she arrived safely at the hive, the sweet and sticky +liquid would have been disgorged for the benefit of bee-grubs. The wasp +avidly set to work to secure that honey. The bee-carcass itself was +destined for the pirate-wasp's own offspring, and that squirming +monstrosity is even more violently carnivorous than its mother. The +parent wasp set about abstracting the dead bee's honey, before taking +the carcass to its young one, because honey is poisonous to the +pirate-wasp's grub. Yet insects cannot act from solicitude or anything +but instinct. And instinct must be maintained by lavish rewards. + +So the pirate-wasp sought its reward--an insane, insatiable, gluttonous +satisfaction in the honey that was poison to its young. The wasp foiled +its murdered victim upon its back again and feverishly pressed on the +limp body to force out the honey. And this was the reason for its +precise manner of murder. Only when killed by the destruction of all +nerve-currents would the bee's body be left limp like this. Only a bee +killed in this exact fashion would yield its honey to manipulation. + +The honey appeared, flowing from the dead bee's mouth. The wasp, in +trembling, ghoulish ecstasy, devoured it as it appeared. It was lost to +all other sights or sensations but its feast. + +And this was the moment when Burl signalled for the attack. The +tribesmen's prey was deaf and blind and raptured. It was aware of +nothing but the delight it savored. But the men wavered, nevertheless, +when they drew near. Burl was first to thrust his spear powerfully into +the trembling body. + +When he was not instantly destroyed the others took courage. Dor's spear +penetrated the very vitals of the ghoul. Jak's club fell with terrific +force upon the wasp's slender waist. There was a crackling, and the +long, spidery limbs quivered and writhed. Then Burl struck again and the +creature fell into two writhing halves. + +They butchered it rather messily, but Burl noticed that even as it died, +sundered and pierced with spears, its long tongue licked out in one last +rapturous taste of the honey that had been its undoing. + +Some time later, burdened with the pollen laden legs of the great bee, +the tribe resumed its journey. + +Now Burl had men behind him. They were still timid and prone to flee at +the least alarm, but they were vastly more dependable than they had +been. They had attacked and slain a wasp whose sting would have killed +any of them. They had done battle under the leadership of Burl, whose +spear had struck the first blow. They were sharers of his glory and, +therefore, much more nearly like the followers of a chieftain ought to +be. + +Their new spirit was badly needed. The red puffballs were certainly no +less numerous in the new territory the tribe traversed than in the +territory they had left. And the season of their ripening' was further +advanced. More and more of the ground showed the deadly rime of settled +death-dust. To stay alive was increasingly difficult. When the full +spore-casting season arrived, it would be impossible. And that season +could not be far away. + +The very next day after the killing of the wasp, survival despite the +red dust had begun to seem unimaginable. Where, earlier, one saw a +red-dust cloud bursting here and there at intervals, on this day there +was always a billowing mass of lethal vapor in the air. At no time was +the landscape free of a moving mist of death. Usually there were three +or four in sight at once. Often there were half a dozen. Once there were +eight. It could be guessed that in one day more they would ripen in such +monstrous numbers that anything which walked or flew or crawled must +breathe in the spores and perish. + +And that day, just at sunset, the tribe came to the top of a small rise +in the ground. For an hour they had been marching and countermarching to +avoid the suddenly-billowing clouds of dust. Once they had been nearly +hemmed in when three of the dull-red mists seemed to flow together, +enclosing the three sides of a circle. They escaped then only by the +most desperate of sprinting. + +But now they came to the little hillock and halted. Before them +stretched a plain, all of four miles wide, colored a brownish brick-red +by the red puffballs. The tribe had seen mushroom forests--they had +lived in them--and knew of the dangers that lurked there. But the plain +before them was not simply dangerous; it was fatal. To right and left it +stretched as far as the eye could see, but away on its farther edge Burl +caught a glimpse of flowing water. + +Over the plain itself a thin red haze seemed to float. It was simply a +cloud of the deadly spores, dispersed and indefinite, but constantly +replenished by the freshly bursting puffballs. While the tribesfolk +stood and watched, thick columns of dust rose here and there and at the +other place, too many to count. They settled again but left behind +enough of the fine powder to keep a thin red haze over all the plain. +This was a mass of literally millions of the deadly growths. Here was +one place where no carnivorous beetles roamed and where no spiders +lurked. There were nothing here but the sullen columns of dust and the +haze that they left behind. + +And of course it would be nothing less than suicide to try to go back. + + + + +_8. A FLIGHT CONTINUES_ + + +Burl kept his people alive until darkness fell. He had assigned watchers +for each direction and when flight was necessary the adults helped the +children to avoid the red dust. Four times they changed direction after +shrill-voiced warnings. When night settled over the plain they were +forced to come to a halt. + +But the puffballs were designed to burst by day. Stumbled into, they +could split at any time, and the humans did hear some few of the tearing +noises that denoted a spore-spout in the darkness. But after slow +nightly rain began they heard no more. + +Burl led his people into the plain of red puffballs as soon as the rain +had lasted long enough to wash down the red haze still hanging in the +air and turn the fallen spores to mud. + +It was an enterprise of such absolute desperation that very likely no +civilized man would have tried it. There were no stars, for guidance, +nor compasses to show the way. There were no lights to enable them to +dodge the deadly things they strove to escape, and there was no +possibility of their keeping a straight course in the darkness. They had +to trust to luck in perhaps the longest long-shot that humans every +accepted as a gamble. + +Quaintly, they used the long antennae of a dead flying-beetle as +sense-organs for themselves. They entered the red plain in a long single +file, Burl leading the way with one of the two feathery whips extended +before him. Saya helped him check on what lay in the darkness ahead, but +made sure not to leave his side. Others trailed behind, hand in hand. + +Progress was slow. The sky was utter blackness, of course, but nowhere +in the lowlands is there an absolute black. Where fox-fire doesn't burn +without consuming, there are mushrooms with glows of their own. Rusts +sometimes shone faintly. Naturally there were no fireflies or glow-worms +of any sort; but neither were there any living things to hunt the tiny +tribe as it moved half-blindly in single file through the plain of red +puffballs. Within half an hour even Burl did not believe he had kept to +his original line. An hour later they realized despairingly that they +were marching helpless through puffballs which would make the air +unbreathable at dawn. But they marched on. + +Once they smelled the rank odor of cabbages. They followed the scent and +came upon them, glowing palely with parasitic moulds on their leaves. +And there were living things here: huge caterpillars eating and eating, +even in the dark, against the time of metamorphosis. Burl could have +cried out infuriatedly at them because they were--so he assumed--immune +to the death of the red dust. But the red dust was all about, and the +smell of cabbages was not the smell of life. + +It could have been, of course. Caterpillars breathe like all insects at +every stage of their development. But furry caterpillars breathe through +openings which are covered over with matted fur. Here, that matted fur +acted to filter the air. The eggs of the caterpillars had been laid +before the puffballs were ready to burst. The time of spore-bearing +would be over before the grubs were butterflies or moths. These +creatures were safe against all enemies--even men. But men groped and +blundered in the darkness simply because they did not think to take the +fur garments they wore and hold them to their noses to serve as +gas-masks or air-filters. The time for that would come, but not yet. + +With the docility of despair, Burl's tribe followed him through all the +night. When the sky began to pale in the east, they numbly resigned +themselves to death. But still they followed. + +And in the very early gray light--when only the very ripest of the red +puffballs spouted toward a still-dark sky--Burl looked harassedly about +him and could have groaned. He was in a little circular clearing, the +deadly red things all about him. There was not yet light enough for +colors to appear. There was merely a vast stillness everywhere, and a +mocking hint of the hot and peppery scent of death-dust--now turned to +mud--all about him. + +Burl dropped in bitter discouragement. Soon the misty dust-clouds would +begin to move about; the reddish haze would form above all this +space.... + +Then, quite suddenly, he lifted his head and whooped. He had heard the +sound of running water. + +His followers looked at him with dawning hope. Without a word to them, +Burl began to run. They followed hastily and quickened their pace when +his voice came back in a shout of triumph. In a moment they had emerged +from the tangle of fungus growths to stand upon the banks of a wide +river--the same river whose gleam Burl had seen the day before, from the +farther side of the red puffball plain. + +Once before, Burl had floated down a river upon a mushroom raft. That +journey had been involuntary. He had been carried far from his tribe and +Saya, his heart filled with desolation. But now he viewed the +swiftly-running current with delight. + +He cast his eyes up and down the bank. Here and there it rose in a low +bluff and thick shelf-fungi stretched out above the water. They were +adaptations of the fungi that once had grown on trees and now fed upon +the incredibly nourishing earth-banks formed of dead growing things. +Burl was busy in an instant, stabbing the relatively hard growths with +his spear and striving to wrench them free. The tribesmen stared +blankly, but at a snapped order they imitated him. + +Soon two dozen masses of firm, light fungus lay upon the shore. Burl +began to explain what they were for, but Dor remonstrated. They were +afraid to part from him. If they might embark on the same fungus-raft, +it would be a different matter. Old Tama scolded him shrilly at the +thought of separation. Jon trembled at the mere idea. + +Burl cast an apprehensive glance at the sky. Day was rapidly +approaching. Soon the red puffballs would burst and shoot their +dust-clouds into the air. This was no time to make stipulations. Then +Saya spoke softly. + +Burl made the suggested great sacrifice. He took the gorgeous velvet +cloak of moth-wing from his shoulder and tore it into a dozen long, +irregular pieces along the lines of the sinews reinforcing it. He +planted his spear upright in the largest raft, fastening the other +cranky craft to it with the improvised lines. + +In a matter of minutes the small flotilla of rafts bobbed in the stream. +One by one, Burl settled the folk upon them with stern commands about +movement. Then he shoved them out from the bank. The collection of +uneasy, floating things moved slowly out from shore to where the current +caught them. Burl and Saya sat on the same section of fungus, the other +trustful but frightened tribes-people clustered timorously about. + +As they began to move between the mushroom-lined banks of the river, +and as the mist of nighttime lifted from its surface, columns of red +dust spurted sullenly upward on the plain. In the light of dawn the +deadly red haze was forming once more over the puffball plain. + +By that time, however, the unstable rafts were speeding down the river, +bobbing and whirling in the stream, with wide-eyed people as their +passengers gazing in wonderment at the shores. + +Five miles downstream, the red growths became less numerous and other +forms of fungus took their places. Moulds and rusts covered the ground +as grass did on more favored planets. Toadstools showed their creamy, +rounded heads, and there were malformed things with swollen trunks and +branches mocking the trees that were never seen in these lowlands. Once +the tribesmen saw the grisly bulk of a hunting-spider outlined on the +river-bank. + +All through the long day they rode the current, while the insect life +that had been absent in the neighborhood of the death-plain became +abundant again. Bees once more droned overhead, and wasps and +dragonflies. Four-inch mosquitoes appeared, to be driven off with blows. +Glittering beetles made droning or booming noises as they flew. Flies of +every imaginable metallic hue flew about. Huge butterflies danced above +the steaming land and running river in seeming ecstasy at simply being +alive. + +All the thousand-and-one forms of insect life flew and crawled and swam +and dived where the people of the rafts could see them. Water-beetles +came lazily to the surface to snap at other insects on the surface. The +shell-covered boats of caddis-flies floated in the eddies and +backwaters. + +The day wore on and the shores flowed by. The tribesmen ate of their +food and drank of the river. When afternoon came the banks fell away and +the current slackened. The shores became indefinite. The river merged +itself into a vast swamp from which came a continual muttering. + +The water seemed to grow dark when black mud took the place of the clay +that had formed its bed. Then there appeared floating green things which +did not move with the flowing water. They were the leaves of the +water-lilies that managed to survive along with cabbages and a very few +other plants in the midst of a fungus world. Twelve feet across, any one +of the green leaves might have supported the whole of Burl's tribe. + +They became so numerous that only a relatively narrow, uncovered stream +flowed between tens of acres of the flat, floating leaves. Here and +there colossal waxen blossoms could be seen. Three men could hide in +those enormous flowers. They exhaled an almost overpowering fragrance +into the air. + +And presently the muttering sound that had been heard far away grew in +volume to an intermittent deep-bass roar. It seemed to come from the +banks on either side. It was the discordant croaking of frogs, eight +feet in length, which lived and throve in this swamp. Presently the +tribesfolk saw them: green giants sitting immobile upon the banks, only +opening their huge mouths to croak. + +Here in the swamps there was such luxuriance of insect life that a +normal tribal hunting-ground--in which tribesmen were not yet accustomed +to hunt--would seem like a desert by comparison. Myriads of little +midges, no more than three or four inches across their wings, danced +above the water. Butterflies flew low, seemingly enamoured of their +reflections in the glassy water. + +The people watched as if their eyes would become engorged by the strange +new things they saw. Where the river split and split and divided again, +there was nothing with which they were familiar. Mushrooms did not grow +here. Moulds, yes. But there were cattails, with stalks like trees, +towering thirty feet above the waterways. + +After a long, long time though, the streams began to rejoin each other. +Then low hills loomed through the thicker haze that filled the air here. +The river flowed toward and through them. And here a wall of high +mountains rose toward the sky, but their height could not be guessed. +They vanished in the mist even before the cloud-bank swallowed them. + +The river flowed through a river-gate, a water-gap in the mountains. +While day still held fully bright, the bobbing rafts went whirling +through a narrow pass with sheer walls that rose beyond all seeing in +the mist. Here there was even some white water. Above it, spanning a +chasm five hundred feet across, a banded spider had flung its web. The +rafts floated close enough to see the spider, a monster even of its +kind, its belly swollen to a diameter of yards. It hung motionless in +the center of the snare as the humans swept beneath it. + +Then the mountains drew back and the tribe was in a valley where, look +as they might, there was no single tawny-red puffball from whose +spreading range the tribesmen were refugees. The rafts grounded and they +waded ashore while still the day held. And there was food here in +plenty. + +But darkness fell before they could explore. As a matter of precaution +Burl and his folk found a hiding-place in a mushroom-thicket and hid +until morning. The night-sounds were wholly familiar to them. The noise +of katydids was louder than usual--the feminine sound of that name gives +no hint of the sonorous, deep-toned notes the enlarged creatures +uttered--and that implied more vegetation as compared with straight +fungoid flora. A great many fireflies glowed in the darkness shrouding +the hiding-place, indicating that the huge snails they fed on were +plentiful. The snails would make very suitable prey for the tribesmen +also. But men were not yet established in their own minds as predators. + +They were, though, definitely no longer the furtive vermin they had +been. They knew there were such things as weapons. They had killed ants +for food and a pirate-wasp as an exercise in courage. To some degree +they were acquiring Burl's own qualities. But they were still behind +him--and he still had some way to go. + +The next day they explored their new territory with a boldness which +would have been unthinkable a few weeks before. The new haven was a +valley, spreading out to a second swamp at its lower end. They could not +know it, but beyond the swamp lay the sea. Exploring, because of +strictly practical purposes and not for the sake of knowledge, they +found a great trap-door in the earth, sure sign of the lair of a spider. +Burl considered that before many days the monster would have to be dealt +with. But he did not yet know how it could be done. + +His people were rapidly becoming a tribe of men, but they still needed +Burl to think for them. What he could not think out, so far, could not +be done. But a part of the proof that they needed Burl to think for them +lay in the fact that they did not realize it. They gathered facts about +their environment. The nearest ant-city was miles away. That meant that +they would encounter its scouting foragers rather than working-parties. +The ant-city would be a source of small prey--a notion that would have +been inconceivable a little while ago. There were numerous giant +cabbages in the valley and that meant there were big, defenseless slugs +to spear whenever necessary. + +They saw praying-mantises--the adults were eighteen feet tall and as big +as giraffes, but much less desirable neighbors--and knew that they would +have to be avoided. But there were edible mushrooms on every hand. If +one avoided spiders and praying-mantises and the meat-eating beetles; if +one were safely hidden at night against the amorous male spiders who +took time off from courtship to devour anything living that came their +way; and if one lived at high-tension alertness, interpreting every +sound as possible danger and every unknown thing as certain peril--then +one could live quite comfortably in this valley. + +For three days the tribesmen felt that they had found a sort of +paradise. Jon had his belly full to bursting all day long. Tet and Dik +became skilled ant-hunters. Dor found a better spear and practiced +thoughtfully with it. + +There were no red puffballs here. There was food. Burl's folk could +imagine no greater happiness. Even old Tama scolded only rarely. They +surely could not conceive of any place where a man might walk calmly +about with no danger at all of being devoured. This was paradise! + +And it was a deplorable state of affairs. It is not good for human +beings to feel secure and experience contentment. Men achieve only by +their wants or through their fears. Back at their former +foraging-ground, the tribe would never have emulated Burl with any +passion so long as they could survive by traditional behavior. Before +the menace of the red puffballs developed, he had brought them to the +point of killing ants, with him present and ready to assist. They would +have stayed at about that level. The red dust had forced their flight. +During that flight they had achieved what was--compared to their former +timidity--prodigies of valor. + +But now they arrived at paradise. There was food. They could survive +here in the fashion of the good old days before they learned the courage +of desperation. They did not need Burl to keep them alive or to feed +them. They tended to disregard him. But they did not disperse. Social +grouping is an instinct in human beings as it is in cattle or in schools +of fish. Also, when Burl was available there was a sense of pleasant +confidence. He had gotten them out of trouble before. If more trouble +came, he would get them out of it again. But why look for trouble? + +Burl's tribesmen sank back into a contented lethargy. They found food +and hid themselves until it was all consumed. A part of the valley was +found where they were far enough from visible dangers to feel blissfully +safe. When they did move, though still with elaborate caution, it was +only to forage for food. And they did not need to go far because there +was plenty of food. They slipped back. Happier than they had ever been, +the foragers finally began to forget to take their new spears or clubs +with them. They were furtive vermin in a particularly favorable +environment. + +And Burl was infuriated. He had known adulation. He was cherished, to be +sure, but adulation no longer came his way. Even Saya.... + +An ironically natural change took place in Saya. When Burl was a +chieftain, she looked at him with worshipful eyes. Now that he was as +other men, she displayed coquetry. And Burl was of that peculiarly +direct-thinking sort of human being who is capable of leadership but not +of intrigue. He was vain, of course. But he could not engage in +elaborate maneuvers to build up a romantic situation. When Saya archly +remained with the women of the tribe, he considered that she avoided +him. When she coyly avoided speech with him, he angrily believed that +she did not want his company. + +When they had been in the valley for a week Burl went off on a bitter +journey by himself. Part of his motivation, probably, was a childish +resentment. He had been the great man of the tribe. He was no longer so +great because his particular qualities were not needed. And--perhaps +with some unconscious intent to punish them for their lessened +appreciation--he went off in a pet. + +He still carried spear and club, but the grandeur of his costume had +deteriorated. His cloak was gone. The moth-antennae he had worn bound to +his forehead were now so draggled that they were ridiculous. He went off +angrily to be rid of his fellows' indifference. + +He found the upward slopes which were the valley's literal boundaries. +They promised nothing. He found a minor valley in which a labyrinth +spider had built its shining snare. Burl almost scorned the creature. He +could kill it if he chose, merely by stabbing it though the walls of +its silken nest as it waited for unlucky insects to blunder into the +intricate web. He saw praying-mantises. Once he came upon that +extraordinary egg-container of the mantis tribe: a gigantic leaf-shaped +mass of solidified foam, whipped out of some special plastic compound +which the mantis secretes, and in which the eggs are laid. + +He found a caterpillar wrapped in its thick cocoon and, because he was +not foraging and not particularly hungry, he inspected it with care. +With great difficulty he even broke the strand of silk that formed it, +unreeling several feet in curiosity. Had he meditated, Burl would have +seen that this was cord which could be used to build snares as spiders +did. It could also be used to make defenses in which--if built strongly +and well--even hunting-spiders might be tangled and dispatched. + +But again he was not knowingly looking for things to be of use. He +coddled his sense of injury against the tribe. He punished them by +leaving them. + +He encountered a four-foot praying-mantis that raised its saw-toothed +forelimbs and waited immobile for him to come within reach. He had +trouble getting away without a fight. His spear would have been a clumsy +weapon against so slender a target and the club certainly not quick +enough to counter the insect's lightning-like movements. + +He was bothered. That day he hunted ants. The difficulty was mainly that +of finding individual ants, alone, who could be slaughtered without +drawing hordes of others into the fight. Before nightfall he had three +of them--foot-long carcasses--slung at his belt. Near sunset he came +upon another fairly recent praying-mantis hatchling. It was almost an +ambush. The young monster stood completely immobile and waited for him +to walk into its reach. + +Burl performed a deliberate experiment--something that had not been done +for a very long time on the forgotten planet. The small, grisly creature +stood as high as Burl's shoulders. It would be a deadly antagonist. +Burl tossed it a dead ant. + +It struck so swiftly that the motion of its horrible forearms could not +be seen. Then it ignored Burl, devouring the tidbit. + +It was a discovery that was immediately and urgently useful. + +On the second day of his aimless journey Burl saw something that would +be even more deadly and appalling than the red dust had been for his +kind. It was a female black hunting-spider, the so-called American +tarantula. When he glimpsed the thing the blood drained from Burl's +face. + +As the monster moved out of sight Burl, abandoning any other project he +might have intended, headed for the place his tribe had more or less +settled in. He had news which offered the satisfaction of making him +much-needed again, but he would have traded that pleasure ten hundred +times over for the simple absence of that one creature from this valley. +That female tarantula meant simply and specifically that the tribe must +flee or die. This place was not paradise! + +The entry of the spider into the region had preceded the arrival of the +people. A giant, even of its kind, it had come across some pass among +the mountains for reasons only it could know. But it was deadliness +beyond compare. Its legs spanned yards. The fangs were needle-sharp and +feet in length--and poisoned. Its eyes glittered with insatiable, insane +blood-lust. Its coming was ten times more deadly to the humans--as to +the other living creatures of the valley--than a Bengal tiger loosed in +a human city would have been. It was bad enough in itself, but it +brought more deadly disaster still behind it. + +Bumping and bouncing behind its abdomen as it moved, fastened to its +body by dirtied silken ropes, this creature dragged a burden which was +its own ferocity many times multiplied. It was dragging an egg-bag +larger than its body--which was feet in diameter. The female spider +would carry this ghastly burden--cherishing it--until the eggs hatched. +And then there would be four to five hundred small devils loose in the +valley. From the instant of their hatching they would be as deadly as +their parent. Though the offspring would be small--with legs spanning no +more than a foot--their bodies would be the size of a man's fist and +able to leap two yards. Their tiny fangs would be no less envenomed than +their mother's. In stark, maniacal hatred of all other life they would +at least equal the huge gray horror which had begot them. + +Burl told his tribesmen. They listened, eyes large with fright but not +quite afraid. The thing had not yet happened. When Burl insistently +commanded that they follow him on a new journey, they nodded uneasily +but slipped away. He could not gather the tribe together. Always there +were members who hid from him--and when he went in search of them, the +ones he had gathered vanished before he could return. + +There were days of bright light and murder, and nights of slow rain and +death in the valley. The great creatures under the cloud-bank committed +atrocities upon each other and blandly dined upon their victims. +Unthinkingly solicitous parents paralyzed creatures to be left living +and helpless for their young to feed on. There were enormities of +cruelty done in the matter-of-fact fashion of the insect world. To these +things the humans were indifferent. They were uneasy, but like other +humans everywhere they would not believe the worst until the worst +arrived. + +Two weeks after their coming to the valley, the worst was there. When +that day came the first gray light of dawn found the humans in a +shivering, terrified group in a completely suicidal position. They were +out in the open--not hidden but in plain view. They dared not hide any +more. The furry gray monster's brood had hatched. The valley seemed to +swarm with small gray demons which killed and killed, even when they +could not devour. When they encountered each other they fought in +slavering fury and the victors in such duels dined upon their brethren. +But always they hunted for more things to kill. They were literally +maniacs--and they were too small and too quick to fight with spears or +clubs. + +So now, at daybreak, the humans looked about despairingly for death to +come to them. They had spent the night in the open lest they be trapped +in the very thickets that had formerly been their protection. They were +in clear sight of the large gray murderer, if it should pass that way. +And they did not dare hide because of that ogreish creature's brood. + +The monster appeared. A young girl saw it and cried out chokingly. It +had not seen them. They watched it leap upon and murder a +vividly-colored caterpillar near the limit of vision in the +morning-mist. It was in the tribe's part of the valley. Its young +swarmed everywhere. The valley could have been a paradise, but it was +doomed to become a charnel-house. + +And then Burl shook himself. He had been angry when he left his tribe. +He had been more angry when he returned and they would not obey him. He +had remained with them, petulantly silent, displaying the offended +dignity he felt and elaborately refusing to acknowledge any overtures, +even from Saya. Burl had acted rather childishly. But his tribesmen were +like children. It was the best way for him to act. + +They shivered, too hopeless even to run away while the shaggy monster +feasted a half-mile away. There were six men and seven women besides +himself, and the rest were children, from gangling adolescents to one +babe in arms. They whimpered a little. Then Saya looked imploringly at +Burl--coquetry forgotten now. The other whimpered more loudly. They had +reached that stage of despair, now, when they could draw the monster to +them by blubbering in terror. + +This was the psychological moment. Burl said dourly: + +"Come!" + +He took Saya's hand and started away. There was but one direction in +which any human being could think to move in this valley, at this +moment. It was the direction away from the grisly mother of horrors. It +happened to be the way up the valley wall. Burl started up that slope. +Saya went with him. + +Before they had gone ten yards Dor spoke to his wife. They followed +Burl, with their three children. Five yards more, and Jak agitatedly +began to bustle his family into movement. Old Jon, wheezing, frantically +scuttled after Burl, and Cori competently set out with the youngest of +her children in her arms and the others marching before her. Within +seconds more, all the tribe was in motion. + +Burl moved on, aware of his following, but ignoring it. The procession +continued in his wake simply because it had begun to do so. Dik, his +adolescent brashness beaten down by terror, nevertheless regarded Burl's +stained weapon with the inevitable envy of the half-grown for +achievement. He saw something half-buried in the soil and--after a +fearful glance behind--he moved aside to tug at it. It was part of the +armor of a former rhinoceros beetle. Tet joined him. They made an act of +great daring of lingering to find themselves weapons as near as possible +to Burl's. + +A quarter-mile on, the fugitives passed a struggling milkweed plant, no +more than twenty feet high and already scabrous with scale and rusts +upon its lower parts. Ants marched up and down its stalk in a steady +single file, placing aphids from their nearby ant-city on suitable spots +to feed,--and to multiply as only parthenogenic aphids can do. But +already, on the far side of the milkweed, an ant-lion climbed up to do +murder among them. The ant-lion, of course, was the larval form of a +lace-wing fly. The aphids were its predestined prey. + +Burl continued to march, holding Saya's hand. The reek of formic acid +came to his nostrils. He ignored it. Ants were as much prey to his +tribesmen, now, as crabs and crayfish to other, shore-dwelling tribesmen +on long-forgotten Earth. But Burl was not concerned with food, now. He +stalked on toward the mountain-slopes. + +Dik and Tet brandished their new weapons. They looked fearfully behind +them. The monster from whom they fled was lost in its gruesome +feasting,--and they were a long way from it, now. There was a steady, +single-file procession of ants, with occasional gaps in the line. The +procession passed the line through one of those gaps. + +Beyond it, Tet and Dik conferred. They dared each other. They went +scrambling back to the line of ants. Their weapons smote. The +slaughtered ants died instantly and were quickly dragged from the +formic-acid-scented path. The remaining ants went placidly on their way. +The weapons struck again. + +The two adolescents had to outdo each other. But they had as much food +as they could carry. Gloating--each claiming to have been most daring +and to have the largest bag of game--they ran panting after the tribe. +They grandly distributed their take of game. It was a form of boasting. +But the tribesfolk accepted the gifts automatically. It was, after all, +food. + +The two gangling boys, jabbering at each other, raced back once more. +Again they returned with dangling masses of foodstuff,--half-scores of +foot-long creatures whose limbs, at least, contained firm meat. + +Behind, the ant-lion made his onslaught into the stupidly feasting +aphids, and warrior-ants took alarm and thrust forward to offer battle. +Tumult arose upon the milkweed. + +But Burl led his followers toward the mountainside. He reached a minor +eminence and looked about him. Caution was the price of existence on +this world. + +Two hundred feet away, a small scurrying horror raged and searched among +the rough-edged layers of what on other worlds was called paper-mould or +rock-tripe. Here it was thick as quilting, and infinitesimal creatures +denned under it. The sixteen-inch spider devoured them, making +gluttonous sounds. But it was busy, and all spiders are relatively +short-sighted. + +Burl turned to Saya, and realized that all his tribe had followed him +fearfully even to this small height he'd climbed only to look around +from. Dor had taken advantage of Burl's pause. There was an empty +cricket-shell partly overwhelmed by the fungoid soil. He tore free a +now-hollow, sickle-shaped jaw. It was curved and sharp and deadly if +properly wielded. Dor had seen Burl kill things. He had even helped. +Now, very grimly, he tried to imagine killing something all alone. Jak +saw him working on the sickle-shaped weapon. He tugged at the cricket's +ransacked carcass for another weapon. Dik and Tet vaingloriously +pretended to fight between themselves with their recently acquired +instruments for killing. Jon wheezed and panted. Old Tama complained to +herself in whispers, not daring to make sounds in the daylight. The rest +waited until Burl should lead them further. + +When Burl turned angry eyes upon them--he was beginning to do such +things deliberately, now--they all regarded him humbly. Now they +remembered that they had been hungry and he had gotten food for them, +and they had been paralyzed by terror, and he dared to move. They +definitely had a feeling of dependence upon him, for the present moment +only. Later, their feeling of humbleness would diminish. In proportion +as he met their needs for leadership, they would tend to try to become +independent of him. His leadership would be successful in proportion as +he taught them to lead themselves. But Burl perceived this only dimly. +At the moment it was pleasing to have all his tribe regard him so +worshipfully, even if not in quite the same fashion as Saya. He was +suddenly aware that now--at any rate while they were so frightened--they +would obey him. So he invented an order for them to obey. + +"I carry sharp things," he said sternly. "Some of you have gotten sharp +things. Now everybody must carry sharp things, to fight with." + +Humbly, they scattered to obey. Saya would have gone with them, but Burl +held her back. He did not quite know why. It could have been that the +absolute equality of the sexes in cravenness was due to end, and for his +own vanity Burl would undertake the defense of Saya. He did not analyze +so far. He did not want her to leave him, so he prevented it. + +The tribesfolk scattered. Dor went with his wife, to help her arm +herself. Jak uneasily followed his. Jon went timorously where the +picked-over remnant of the cricket's carcass might still yield an +instrument of defense. Cori laid her youngest child at Burl's feet while +she went fearfully to find some toothed instrument meeting Burl's +specification of sharpness. + +There was a stifled scream. A ten-year-old boy--he was Dik's younger +brother--stood paralyzed. He stared in an agony of horror at something +that had stepped from behind a misshapen fungoid object fifty yards from +Burl, but less than ten yards from him. + +It was a pallidly greenish creature with a small head and enormous eyes. +It stood upright, like a man,--and it was a few inches taller than a +man. Its abdomen swelled gracefully into a leaflike form. The boy faced +it, paralyzed by horror, and it stood stock-still. Its great, hideously +spined arms were spread out in a pose of hypocritical benediction. + +It was a partly-grown praying mantis, not too long hatched. It stood +rigid, waiting benignly for the boy to come closer or try to flee. If +he had fled, it would fling itself after him with a ferocity beside +which the fury of a tiger would be kittenish. If he approached, its +fanged arms would flash down, pierce his body, and hold him terribly +fast by the needle-sharp hooks that were so much worse than trap-claws. +And of course it would not wait for him to die before it began its meal. + +All the small party of humans stood frozen. It may be questioned whether +they were filled with horror for the boy, or cast into a deeper abyss of +despair by the sight of a half-grown mantis. Only Burl, so far, had any +notion of actually leaving the valley. To the rest, the discovery of one +partly mature praying mantis meant that there would be hundreds of +others. It would be impossible to evade the tiny, slavering demons which +were the brood of the great spider. It would be impossibility multiplied +to live where a horde of small--yet vastly larger--fiends lived, raising +their arms in a semblance of blessing before they did murder. + +Only Burl was capable of thought, and this was because vanity filled +him. He had commanded and had been obeyed. Now obedience was forgotten +because there was this young mantis. If the men had dreamed of fighting +it, it could have destroyed any number of them by sheer ferocity and its +arsenal of knives and daggers. But Burl was at once furious and +experienced. He had encountered such a middle-sized monster, when alone, +and deliberately had experimented with it. In consequence he could dare +to rage. He ran toward the mantis. He swung the small corpse of an +ant--killed by Tet only minutes since--and hurled it past the +terror-fascinated boy. He had hurled it at the mantis. + +It struck. And insects simply do not think. Something hurtled at the +ghastly young creature. Its arms struck ferociously to defend itself. +The ant was heavy. Poised upright in its spectral attitude, the mantis +was literally flung backward. But it rolled over, fighting the dead ant +with that frenzy which is not so much ferocity as mania. + +The small boy fled, hysterically, once the insect's attention was +diverted. + +The human tribe gathered around Burl many hundreds of yards away,--again +uphill. He was their rendezvous because of the example set by Cori. She +had left her baby with Burl. When Burl dashed from the spot, Saya had +quite automatically followed the instinct of any female for the young of +its kind. She'd snatched up the baby before she fled. And--of +course--she'd joined Burl when the immediate danger was over. + +The floor of the valley seemed a trifle indistinct, from here. The mist +that hung always in the air partly veiled the details of its horrors. It +was less actual, not quite as deadly as it once had seemed. + +Burl said fiercely to his followers: + +"Where are the sharp things?" + +The tribesfolk looked at one another, numbly. Then Jon muttered +rebelliously, and old Tama raised her voice in shrill complaint. Burl +had led them to this! There had been only the red dust in the place from +which they had come, but here was a hunting-spider and its young and +also a new hatching of mantises! They could dodge the red dust, but how +could they escape the deaths that waited them here? Ai! Ai! Burl had +persuaded them to leave their home and brought them here to die.... + +Burl glared about him. It was neither courage nor resolution, but he had +come to realize that to be admired by one's fellows was a splendid +sensation. The more one was admired, the better. He was enraged that +anyone dared to despair instead of thinking admiringly about his +remarkableness. + +"I," said Burl haughtily, "am not going to stay here. I go to a place +where there are neither spiders nor mantises. Come!" + +He held out his hand to Saya. She gave the child to Cori and confidently +moved to follow him. Burl stalked grandly away and she went with him. He +went uphill. Naturally! There were spiders and mantises in the +valley,--so many that to stay there meant death. So he moved to go +somewhere else. + +And this was the climactic event that changed the whole history of +humanity upon the forgotten planet. Up to this point, there may have +been other individuals who had accomplished somewhat of Burl's kind of +leadership. A few may have learned courage. It is possible that some +even led their tribesfolk upon migrations in search of safer lands to +live in. But until Burl led his people out of a valley filled with food, +up a mountainside toward the unknown, it was simply impossible for +humans to rise permanently above the status of hunted vermin; at the +mercy of monstrous mindless creatures; whose forbears had most +ironically been brought to this planet to prepare it for humans to live +on. + +Burl was the first man to lead his fellows toward the heights. + + + + +_9. THERE IS SUCH A THING AS SUNSHINE_ + + +The sun that shone upon the forgotten planet was actually very near. It +shone on the top of the cloud-bank, and the clouds glowed with dazzling +whiteness. It shone on the mountain-peaks where they penetrated the +mist, and the peaks were warmed, and there was no snow anywhere despite +the height. There were winds, here where the sun yielded sensible heat. +The sky was very blue. At the edge of the plateau--from which the +cloud-banks were down instead of up--the mountainsides seemed to descend +into a sea of milk. Great undulations in the mist had the semblance of +waves, which moved with great deliberation toward the shores. They +seemed sometimes to break in slow-motion against the mountain-walls +where they were cliff-like, and sometimes they seemed to flow up gentler +inclinations like water flowing up a beach. But all of this was very +deliberate indeed, because the cloud-waves were sometimes twenty miles +from crest to crest. + +The look of things was different on the highlands. This part of the +unnamed world, no less than the lowlands, had been seeded with life on +two separate occasions. Once the seedings was with bacteria and moulds +and lichens to break up the rocks and make soil of them, and once with +seeds and insect-eggs and such living things as might sustain themselves +immediately they were hatched. But here on the highlands the different +climatic conditions had allowed other seedlings and creatures to survive +together. + +Here moulds and yeasts and rusts were stunted by the sunlight. Grasses +and weeds and trees survived, instead. This was an ideal environment for +plants that needed sunlight to form chlorophyl, with which to make use +of the soil that had been formed. So on the highlands the vegetation was +almost earthlike. And there was a remarkable side-effect on the fauna +which had been introduced in the same manner and at the same time as the +creatures down below. In coolness which amounted to a temperate climate, +there developed no such frenzy of life as made the nightmare jungles +under the clouds. Plants grow at a slower rate than fungi, and less +luxuriantly. There was no vast supply of food for large-sized +plant-eaters. Insects which were to survive, here, could not grow to be +monsters. Moreover, the nights here were chill. Very many insects grow +torpid in the cool of a temperate-zone night, but warm up to activity +soon after sunrise. But a large creature, made torpid by cold, will not +revive so quickly. If large enough, it will not become fully active +until close to dark. On the plateau, the lowland monsters would starve +in any case. But more;--they would have only a fraction of each day of +full activity. + +So there was a necessary limit to the size of the creatures that lived +above the clouds. To humans from other planets, the life on the plateau +would not have seemed horrifying at all. Save for the absence of birds +to sing, and a lack of small mammals to hunt or merely to enjoy, the +untouched, sunlit plateau with its warm days and briskly chill nights +would have impressed most civilized men as an ideal habitation. + +But Burl and his followers were hardly prepared to see it that way at +first glance. If told about it in advance, they would have thought of it +with despair. + +But they did not know beforehand. They toiled upward, their leader moved +by such ridiculous motives of pride and vanity as have caused men to +achieve greatness throughout all history. Two great continents were +discovered back on Earth by a man trying to get spices to hide the gamey +flavor of half-spoiled meat, and the power that drives mile-long +space-craft was first discovered and tamed by men making bombs to +destroy their fellows. There were precedents for foolish motives +producing results far from foolishness. + +The trudging, climbing folk crawled up the hillside. They reached a +place high above the valley Burl had led them to. That valley grew misty +in appearance. Presently it could no longer be seen at all. The mist +they had taken for granted, all their lives, hid from them everything +but the slanting stony wall up which they climbed. The stone was mostly +covered by bluish-green rock-tripe in partly overlapping sheets. Such +stuff is always close behind the bacteria which first attack a +rock-face. On a slope, it clings while soil is washed downward as fast +as it is formed. The people never ate rock-tripe, of course. It produces +frightening cramps. In time they might learn that when thoroughly dried +it can be cooked to pliability again and eaten with some satisfaction. +But so far they neither knew dryness nor fire. + +Nor had they ever known such surroundings as presently enveloped them. A +slanting rocky mountainside, which stretched up frighteningly to the +very sky. Grayness overhead. Grayness also to one side,--the side away +from the mountain. And equal grayness below. The valley from which they +had come could no longer be seen even as a different shading of the +mist. And as they scrambled and trudged after Burl, his followers +gradually became aware of the utter strangeness of all about them. For +one result, they grew sick and dizzy. To them it seemed that all +solidity was slowly tilting. Had they been superstitious, they might +have thought of demons preparing to punish them for daring to come to +such a place. But--quaintly enough--Burl's followers had developed no +demonology. Your typical savage is resolved not to think, but he does +have leisure to want. He makes gods and devils out of his nightmares, +and gambles on his own speculations to the extent of offering blackmail +to demons if they will only let him alone or--preferably--give him more +of the things he wants. + +But the superstitions of savages involve the payment of blackmail in +exact proportion to their prosperity. The Eskimos of Earth lived always +on the brink of starvation. They could not afford the luxury of tabus +and totem animals whose flesh must not be eaten, and forbidden areas +which might contain food. + +Religion there was, among Burl's people, but superstition was not. No +humans, anywhere, can live without religion, but on Earth Eskimos did +with a minimum of superstitions,--they could afford no more--and the +humans of the forgotten planet could not afford any at all. + +Therefore they climbed desperately despite the unparalleled state of +things about them. There was no horizon, but they had never seen a +horizon. Their feeling was that what had been "down" was now partly +"behind" and they feared lest a toppling universe ultimately let them +fall toward that grayness they considered the sky. + +But all kept on. To lag behind would be to be abandoned in this place +where all known sensations were turned topsy-turvy. None of them could +imagine turning back. Even old Tama, whimpering in a whisper as she +struggled to keep up, merely complained bitterly of her fate. She did +not even think of revolt. If Burl had stopped, all his followers would +have squatted down miserably to wait for death. They had no thought of +adventure or any hope of safety. The only goodnesses they could imagine +were food and the nearness of other humans. They had food--nobody had +abandoned any of the dangling ant-bodies Tet and Dik had distributed +before the climb began. They would not be separated from their fellows. + +Burl's motivation was hardly more distinct. He had started uphill in a +judicious mixture of fear and injured vanity and desperation. There was +nothing to be gained by going back. The terrors at hand were no greater +than those behind, so there was no reason not to go ahead. + +They came to a place where the mountain-flank sank inward. There was a +flat space, and behind it a winding cañon of sorts like a vast crack in +the mountain's substance. Burl breasted the curving edge and found +flatness beyond it. He stopped short. + +The mouth of the cañon was perhaps fifty yards from the lip of the +downward slope. So much space was practically level, and on it were +toadstools and milkweed--two of them--and there was food. It was a +small, isolated asylum for life such as they were used to. They +could--it was possible that they could--have found a place of safety +here. + +But the possibility was not the fact. They saw the spider-web at once. +It was slung between the opposite cañon-walls by cables all of two +hundred feet long. The radiating cables reached down to anchorages on +stone. The snare-threads, winding out and out in that logarithmic spiral +whose properties men were so astonished to discover, were fully a yard +apart. The web was for giant game. It was empty now, but Burl saw the +telegraph-cord which ran from the very center of the web to the +web-maker's lurking-place. There was a rocky shelf on the cañon-wall. On +it rested the spider, almost invisible against the stone, with one furry +leg touching the cable. The slightest touch on any part of the web would +warn it instantly. + +Burl's followers accumulated behind him. Old Jon's wheezing was audible. +Tama ceased her complaints to survey this spot. It might be--it could +be--a haven, and she would have to find new and different things to +complain about in consequence. The spider-web itself, of course, was no +reason for them to be alarmed. Web-spiders do not hunt. Their males do, +but they are rarely in the neighborhood of a web save at mating-time. +The web itself was no reason not to settle here. But there was a reason. + +The ground before the web,--between the web and themselves--was a +charnel-house of murdered creatures. Half-inch-thick wing-cases of dead +beetles and the cleaned-out carapaces of other giants. The ovipositor of +an ichneumon-fly,--see feet of springy, slender, deadly-pointed +tube--and the abdomen-plates of bees and the draggled antennae of moths +and butterflies. + +Something very terrible lived in this small place. The mountainsides +were barren of food for big flying things. Anything which did fly this +high for any reason would never land on sloping foodless stone. +It would land here. And very obviously it would die. Because +something--Something--killed things as they came. It denned back in the +cañon where they could not see it. It dined here. + +The humans looked and shivered, all but Burl. He cast his eyes about for +better weapons than he possessed. He chose for himself a magnificent +lance grown by some dead thing for its own defense. He pulled it out of +the ground. + +It was utterly silent, here on the heights. No sounds from the valley +rose so high. There was no noise except the small creakings made as Burl +strove to free the new, splendid weapon for himself. + +That was why he heard the gasp which somebody uttered in default of a +scream that would not be uttered. It was a choked, a strangled, an +inarticulate sobbing noise. + +He saw its cause. + +There was a thing moving toward the folk from the recesses of the cañon. +It moved very swiftly. It moved upon stilt-like, impossibly attenuated +legs of impossible length and inconceivable number. Its body was the +thickness of Burl's own. And from it came a smell of such monstrous +foetor that any man, smelling it, would gag and flee even without fear +to urge him on. The creature was a monstrous millipede, forty feet in +length, with features of purest, unadulterated horror. + +It did not appear to plan to spring. Its speed of movement did not +increase as it neared the tribesfolk. It was not rushing, like the +furious charge of the murderers Burl's tribe knew. It simply flowed +sinuously toward them with no appearance of haste, but at a rate of +speed they could not conceivably outrun. + +Sticklike legs twitched upward and caught the spinning body of an ant. +The creature stopped, and turned its head about and seized the object +its side-legs had grasped. It devoured it. Burl shouted again and again. + +There was a rain of missiles upon the creature. But they were not to +hurt it, but to divert its incredibly automaton-like attention. Its legs +seized the things flung to it. It was not possible to miss. Ten, +fifteen,--twenty of the items of small-game were grasped in mid-air, as +if they were creatures in flight. + +Burl's shoutings took effect. His people fled to the side of the level +lip of ground. They climbed frantically past the opening of the valley. +They fled toward the heights. + +Burl was the last to retreat. The monstrous millipede stood immobile, +trapped for the moment by the gratification of all its desires. It was +absorbed by the multitude of tiny tidbits with which it had been +provided. + +It was a fact to Burl's honor that he debated a frantic attack upon the +monster in its insane absorption. But the strangling stench was +deterrent enough. He fled,--the last of his band of fugitives to leave +the place where the monstrous creature lived and preyed. As he left it, +it was still crunching the small meals, one by one, with which the folk +had supplied it. + +They went on up the mountain-flank. It was not to be supposed, of +course, that the creature could not move above the slanting +rock-surface. Unquestionably it roamed far and wide, upon occasion. But +its own foetid reek would make impossible any idea of trailing the +humans by scent. And, climbing desperately as the humans did, it would +be unable to see them when they were past the first protuberance of the +mountain. + +In twenty minutes they slackened their pace. Exhaustion prompted it. +Caution ordered it. Because here they saw another small island of +flatness in the slanting universe which was all they could see save +mist. It was simply a place where boulders had piled up, and soil had +formed, and there was a miniature haven for life other than moulds which +could grow on naked stone. + +Actually, there was a space a hundred feet by fifty on which wholly +familiar mushrooms grew. It was a thicket like a detached section of the +valley itself. Well-known edible fungi grew here. There were gray +puffballs. And from it came the cheerful loud chirping of some small +beetle, arrived at this spot nobody could possibly know how, but happily +ensconsed in a separate bit of mushroom-jungle remote from the dangers +of the valley. If it was small enough, it would even be safe from the +reeking horror of the cañon just below it. + +They broke off edible mushrooms here and ate. And this could have been +safety for them--save for the giant millipede no more than half a mile +below. Old Jon wheezed querulously that here was food and there was no +need for them to go further, just now. Here was food.... + +Burl regarded him with knitted brows. Jon's reaction was natural enough. +The tribesfolk had never tended to think for the future because it was +impossible to make use of such planning. Even Burl could easily enough +have accepted the fact that this was safety for the moment and food for +the moment. But it happened that to settle down here until driven out +would--and at this moment--have deprived him of the authority he had so +recently learned to enjoy. + +"You stay," he said haughtily, to Jon. "I go on, to a better place where +nothing is to be feared at all!" + +He held out his hand to Saya. He assailed the slope again, heading +upward in the mist. + +His tribe followed him. Dik and Tet, of course, because they were boys +and Burl led on to high adventures in which so far nobody had been +killed. Dor followed because--he being the strongest man in the +tribe--he had thoughtfully realized that his strength was not as useful +as Burl's brains and other qualities. Cori followed because she had +children, and they were safer where Burl led than anywhere else. The +others followed to avoid being left alone. + +The procession toiled on and up. Presently Burl noticed that the air +seemed clearer, here. It was not the misty, only half transparent stuff +of the valley. He could see for miles to right and left. He realized the +curvature of the mountain-face. But he could not see the valley. The +mist hid that. + +Suddenly he realized that he saw the cloud-bank overhead as an object. +He had never thought of it specifically before. To him it had been +simply the sky. Now he saw an indefinite lower surface which yet +definitely hid the heights toward which he moved. He and his followers +were less than a thousand feet below it. It appeared to Burl that +presently he would run into an obstacle which would simply keep him from +going any further. The idea was disheartening. But until it happened he +obstinately climbed on. + +He observed that the thing which was the sky did not stay still. It +moved, though slowly. A little higher, he could see that there were +parts of it which were actually lower than he was. They moved also, but +they moved away from him as often as they moved toward him. He had no +experience of any dangerous thing which did not leap at its victims. +Therefore he was not afraid. + +In fact, presently he noticed that the whiteness which was the +cloud-layer seemed to retreat before him. He was pleased. Weak things +like humans fled from enemies. Here was something which fled at his +approach! His followers undoubtedly saw the same thing. Burl had killed +spiders. He was a remarkable person. This unknown white stuff was afraid +of him. Therefore it was wise to stay close to Burl. Burl found his +vanity inflamed by the fact that always--even at its thickest--the white +cloud-stuff never came nearer than some dozens of feet. He swaggered as +he led his people up. + +And presently there was brightness about them. It was a greater +brightness than the tribesfolk had ever known. They knew daylight as a +grayness in which one could see. Here was a brightness that shone. They +were not accustomed to brightness. + +They were not accustomed to silence, either. The noises of the valley +were like all the noises of the lowlands. They had been in the ears of +every one of the human beings since they could hear at all. They had +gradually diminished as the valley dropped behind them. Now, in the +radiant white mist which was the cloud-layer, there were no sounds at +all, and the fact was suddenly startling. + +They blinked in the brightness. When they spoke to each other, they +spoke in whispers. The stone underfoot was not even lichen-covered, +here. It was bare and bright and glistened with wetness. The light they +experienced took on a golden tint. All of these things were utterly +unparalleled, but the stillness was a hush instead of a menacing +silence. The golden light could not possibly be associated with fear. +The people of the forgotten planet felt, most likely, the sort of +promise in this shining tranquility which before they had known only in +dreams. But this was no dream. + +They came up through the surface of a sea of mist, and they saw before +them a shore of sunshine. They saw blue and sky and sunlight for the +first time. The light smote their shins and brilliantly colored furry +garments. It glittered in changing, ever-more-colorful flashes upon +cloaks made of butterfly wings. It sparkled on the great lance carried +by Burl in the lead, and the quite preposterous weapons borne by his +followers. + +The little party of twenty humans waded ashore through the last of the +thinning white stuff which was cloud. They gazed about them with +wondering, astonished eyes. The sky was blue. There was green grass. And +again there was sound. It was the sound of wind blowing among trees, and +of things living in the sunshine. + +They heard insects, but they did not know what they heard. The shrill +small musical whirrings; the high-pitched small cries which made an +elfin melody everywhere,--these were totally strange. All things were +new to their eyes, and an enormous exultation filled them. From +deep-buried ancestral memories they somehow knew that what they saw was +right, was normal, was appropriate and proper, and that this was the +kind of world in which humans belonged, rather than the seething horror +of the lowlands. They breathed clean air for the first time in many +generations. + +Burl shouted in his triumph, and his voice echoed among trees and +hillsides. + +It was time for the plateau to ring with the shouting of a man in +triumph! + + + + +_10. MEN CLIMB UP TO SAVAGERY_ + + +They had food for days. They had brought mushroom from the isolated +thicket not too far beneath the clouds. There were the ants that Dik and +Tet had distributed grandly, and not all of which had been used to +secure escape from the cañon of the millipede. Had they found other food +immediately, they would have settled down comfortably in the fashion +normal to creatures whose idea of bliss is a secure hiding-place and +food on hand so they do not have to leave it. Somehow they believed that +this high place of bright light and new colors was secure. But they had +no hiding-place. And though they did accept with the unreasoning faith +of children and savages that there were no enemies here, they still +wanted one. + +They found a cave. It was small, so that it would be crowded with all of +them in it, but as it turned out, this was fortunate. At some time it +had been occupied by some other creature, but the dirt which floored it +had settled flat and showed no tracks. It retained faint traces of a +smell which was unfamiliar but not unpleasing,--it held no connotation +of danger. Ants stank of formic acid plus the musky odor of their +particular city. One could identify not only the kind of ant, but its +home city, by sniffing at an ant-trail. Spiders had their own +hair-raising odor. The smell of a praying-mantis was acrid, and all +beetles reeked of decay. And of course there were those bugs whose main +defense was an effluvium which tended to strangle all but the smell's +happy possessor. This faint smell in the cave was different. The humans +thought vaguely that it might possibly be another kind of man. + +Actually, it was the smell of a warm-blooded animal. But Burl and his +fellows knew of no warm-blooded creature but themselves. + +They had come above the clouds a bare two hours before sunset,--of which +they knew nothing. For an hour they marveled, staying close together. +They were especially astounded by the sun, since they could not bear to +look at it. But presently, being savages, they accepted it +matter-of-factly. + +They could not cease to wonder at the vegetation about them. They were +accustomed only to gigantic fungi and the few straggling plants which +tried so desperately to bear seed before they were devoured. Here they +saw many plants and no fungi,--and they did not see anything they +recognized as insects. They looked only for large things. + +They were astounded by the slenderness and toughness of the plants. +Grass fascinated them, and weeds. A large part of their courage came +from the absence of debris upon the ground. The hunting-grounds of +spiders were marked by grisly remnants of finished meals, and where +mantises roamed there were bits of transparent beetle-wings and sharp +spiny bits of armor not tasty enough to be consumed. Here, in the first +hour of their exploration, they saw no sign that an insect like +the lowland ones had ever been in this place at all. But they +could not believe the monsters never came. They correctly--and +pessimistically--assumed that their coming was only rare. + +The cave was a great relief. Trees did not grow close enough to give +them a feeling of safety,--though they were ludicrously amazed at the +invincible hardness of tree trunks. They had never known anything but +insect-armour and stone which was as hard as the trunks of those +growing things. They found nothing to eat, but they were not yet +hungry. They did not worry about food while they still had remnants from +their climb. + +When the sun sank low and crimson colorings filled the west, they were +less happy. They watched the glory of their first sunset with scared, +incredulous eyes. Yellows and reds and purples reared toward the zenith. +It became possible to look at the sun directly. They saw it descend +behind something they could not guess at. Then there was darkness. + +The fact stunned them. So night came like this! + +Then they saw the stars for the first time, as they came singly into +being. And the folk from the lowland crowded frantically into the cave +with its faint odor of having once been occupied by something else. They +filled the cave tightly. But Burl had some reluctance to admit his +terror. He and Saya were the last to enter. + +And nothing happened. Nothing. The sounds of sunset continued. They were +strange but soothing and somehow--again ancestral memory spoke +comfortingly--they were the way night-sounds ought to be. Burl and the +others could not possibly know it, but for the first time in forty +generations on the forgotten planet, human beings were in an environment +really suited to them. It had a rightness and a goodness which was +obvious in spite of its novelty. And because of Burl's own special +experiences, he was a little bit better able to estimate novelties than +the rest. He listened to the night-noises from close by the cave's small +entrance. He heard the breathing of his tribesfolk. He felt the heat of +their bodies, keeping the crowded enclosure warm enough for all. Saya +held fast to his hand, for the reassurance of the contact. He was +wakeful, and thinking very busily and painfully, but Saya was not +thinking at all. She was simply proud of Burl. + +She felt, to be sure, a tumult which was fear of the unknown and relief +from much greater fear of the familiar. She felt warm, prideful +memories of the sight of Burl leading and commanding the others. She had +absorbing fresh memories of the look and feel of sunshine, and mental +pictures of sky and grass and trees which she had never seen before. +Confusedly she remembered that Burl had killed a spider, no less, and he +had shown how to escape a praying-mantis by flinging it at an ant, and +he had grandly led the others up a mountainside it had never occurred to +anybody else to climb. And the giant millipede would have devoured them +all, but that Burl gave commands and set the example, and he had marched +magnificently up the mountainside when it seemed that all the cosmos +twisted and prepared to drop them into an inverted sky.... + +Saya dozed. And Burl sat awake, listening, and presently with +fast-beating heart he slipped out of the entrance to the cave and stared +about him in the night. + +There was coolness such as he had never known before, but nightfall was +not long past. There were smells in the air he had never before +experienced,--green things growing, and the peculiar clean odor of wind +that has been bathed in sunshine, and the oddly satisfying smell of +resinous trees. + +But Burl raised his eyes to the heavens. He saw the stars in all their +glory, and he was the first human in two thousand years and more to look +at them from this planet. There were myriads upon myriads of them, +varying in brightness from stabbing lights to infinitesimal twinklings. +They were of every possible color. They hung in the sky above him, +immobile and unthreatening. They had not descended. They were very +beautiful. + +Burl stared. And then he noticed that he was breathing deeply, with a +new zest. He was filling his lungs with clean, cool, fragrant air such +as men were intended to breathe from the beginning, and of which Burl +and many others had been deprived. It was almost intoxicating to feel so +splendidly alive and unafraid. + +There was a slight sound. Saya stood beside him, trembling a little. To +leave the others had required great courage, but she had come to realize +that if Burl was in danger she wished to share it. + +They heard the nightwind and the orchestra of night-singers. They +wandered aside from the cave-mouth and Saya found completely primitive +and satisfying pride in the courage of Burl, who was actually not afraid +of the dark! Her own uneasiness became something which merely added +savor to her pride in him. She followed him wherever he went, to examine +this and consider that in the nighttime. It gave her enormous +satisfaction at once to think of danger and to feel so safe because of +his nearness. + +Presently they heard a new sound in the night. It was very far away, and +not in the least like any sound they had ever heard before. It changed +in pitch as insect-cries do not. It was a baying, yelping sound. It +rose, and held the higher note, and abruptly dropped in pitch before it +ceased. Minutes later it came again. + +Saya shivered, but Burl said thoughtfully: + +"That is a good sound." + +He didn't know why. Saya shivered again. She said reluctantly: + +"I am cold." + +It had been a rare sensation in the lowlands. It came only after one of +the infrequent thunderstorms, when wetted human bodies were exposed to +the gusty winds that otherwise never blew. But here the nights grew cold +after sundown. The heat of the ground would radiate to outer space with +no clouds to intercept it, and before dawn the temperature might drop +nearly to freezing. On a planet so close to its sun, however, there +would hardly be more than light hoar-frost at any time. + +The two of them went back to the cave. It was warm there, because of the +close packing of bodies and many breaths. Burl and Saya found places to +rest and dozed off, Saya's hand again trustfully in Burl's. + +He still remained awake for a long time. He thought of the stars, but +they were too strange to estimate. He thought of the trees and grass. +But most of his impressions of this upper world were so remote from +previous knowledge that he could only accept them as they were and defer +reflecting upon them until later. He did feel an enormous complacency at +having led his followers here, though. + +But the last thing he actually thought about, before his eyes blinked +shut in sleep, was that distant howling noise he had heard in the night. +It was totally novel in kind, and yet there was something buried among +the items of his racial heritage that told him it was good. + +He was first awake of all the tribesmen and he looked out into the cold +and pallid grayness of before-dawn. He saw trees. One side was brightly +lighted by comparison, and the other side was dark. He heard the tiny +singing noises of the inhabitants of this place. Presently he crawled +out of the cave again. + +The air was biting in its chill. It was an excellent reason why the +giant insects could not live here, but it was invigorating to Burl as he +breathed it in. Presently he looked curiously for the source of the +peculiar one-sided light. + +He saw the top of the sun as it peered above the eastern cloud-bank. The +sky grew lighter. He blinked and saw it rise more fully into view. He +thought to look upward, and the stars that had bewildered him were +nearly gone. + +He ran to call Saya. + +The rest of the tribe waked as he roused her. One by one, they followed +to watch their first sunrise. The men gaped at the sun as it filled the +east with colorings, and rose and rose above the seemingly steaming +layer of clouds, and then appeared to spring free of the horizon and +swim on upward. + +The women stared with all their eyes. The children blinked, and +shivered, and crept to their mothers for warmth. The women enclosed them +in their cloaks, and they thawed and peered out once more at the glory +of sunshine and the day. Very soon, too, they realized that warmth came +from the great shining body in the sky. The children presently +discovered a game. It was the first game they had ever played. It +consisted of running into a shaded place until they shivered, and then +of running out into warm sunshine once more. Until this, dawning fear +was the motive for such playing as they did. Now they gleefully made a +game of sunshine. + +In this first morning of their life above the clouds, the tribesmen ate +of the food they had brought from below. But there was not an indefinite +amount of food left. Burl ate, and considered darkly, and presently +summoned his followers' attention. They were quite contented and for the +moment felt no need of his guidance. But he felt need of admiration. + +He spoke abruptly: + +"We do not want to go back to the place we came from," he said sternly. +"We must look for food here, so we can stay for always. Today we find +food." + +It was a seizure of the initiative. It was the linking of what the folk +most craved with obedience to Burl. It was the device by which dictators +seize power, and it was the instinctive action of a leader. + +The eating men murmured agreement. There was a certain definite idea of +goodness--not virtue, but of things desirable--associated with what Burl +did and what he commanded. His tribe was gradually forming a habit of +obedience, though it was a very fragile habit up to now. + +He led them exploring as soon as they had eaten. All of them, of course. +They straggled irregularly behind him. They came to a brook and regarded +it with amazement. There were no leeches. No greenish algae. No foaming +masses of scum. It was dear! Greatly daring, Burl tasted it. He drank +the first really potable water in a very long time for his race on this +planet. It was not fouled by drainage through moulds or rusts. + +Dor drank after him. Jak. Cori tasted, and instantly bade her children +drink. Even old Tama drank suspiciously, and then raised her voice in +shrill complaint that Burl had not led them to this place sooner. Tet +and Dik became convinced that there were no deadly things lurking in it, +and splashed each other. Dik slipped and sat down hard on white stuff +that yielded and almost splashed. He got up and looked fearfully at what +he thought might be a deadly slime. Then he yelped shrilly. + +He sat down on and crushed part of a bed of mushrooms. But they were +tiny, clean, and appetizing. They were miniatures of the edible +mushrooms the tribe fed on. + +Burl smelled and finally tasted one. It was, of course, nothing more or +less than a perfectly normal edible mushroom, growing to the size that +mushrooms originally grew on Earth. It grew on a shaded place in +enormously rich soil. It had been protected from direct sunlight by +trees, but it had not had the means or the stimulus to become a monster. + +Burl ate it. He carefully composed his features. Then he announced the +find to his followers. There was food here, he told them sternly, but in +this splendid world to which he had led them, food was small. There +would be no great enemies here, but the food would have to be sought in +small objects instead of great ones. They must look at this place and +seek others like it, in order to find food.... + +The tribesmen were doubtful. But they plucked mushrooms--whole +ones!--instead of merely breaking off parts of their tops. With deep +astonishment they recognized the miniature objects as familiar things +ensmalled. These mushrooms had the same savor, but they were not coarse +or stringy or tough like the giants. They melted in the mouth; Life in +this place to which Burl had led them was delectable! Truly the doings +of Burl were astonishing! + +When the oldest of Cori's children found a beetle on a leaf, and they +recognized it, and instead of being bigger than a man and a thing to +flee from, it was less than an inch in size and helpless against them--. +They were entranced. From that moment onward they would really follow +Burl anywhere, in the happy conviction that he could only bring good to +everybody. + +The opinion could have drawbacks, and it need not be always even true, +but Burl did nothing to discourage it. + +And then, near midday, they made a discovery even greater than that of +familiar food in unfamiliar sizes. They were struggling, at the time, +through a vast patch of bushes with thorns on them--they were not used +to thorns--which they deeply distrusted. Eventually they would find out +that the glistening dark fruit were blackberries, and would rejoice in +them, but at this first encounter they were uneasy. In the midst of such +an untouched berry-patch they heard noises in the distance. + +The sound was made up of cries of varying pitch, some of which were loud +and abrupt, and others longer and less loud. The people did not +understand them in the least. They could have been cries of human +beings, perhaps, but they were not cries of pain. Also they were not +language. They seemed to express a tremendous, zestful excitement. They +had no overtone of horror. And Burl and his folk had known of no +excitement among insects except frenzy. They could not imagine what sort +of tumult this could be. + +But to Burl these sounds had something of the timbre of the yelping +noises of the night before. He had felt drawn to that sound. He liked +it. He liked this. + +He led the way boldly toward the agitated noises. Presently--after a +mile or so--he and his people came out of breast-high weeds. Saya was +immediately behind him. The others trailed,--Tama complaining bitterly +that there was no need to track down sounds which could only mean +danger. They emerged in a space of bare stone above a small and grassy +amphitheatre. The tumult came from its center. + +A pack of dogs was joyously attacking something that Burl could not see +clearly. They were dogs. They barked zestfully, and they yelped and +snarled and yapped in a dozen different voices, and they were having a +thoroughly good time,--though it might not be so good for the thing they +attacked. + +One of them sighted the humans. He stopped stock-still and barked. The +others whirled and saw the humans as they came out into view. The tumult +ceased abruptly. + +There was silence. The tribesmen saw creatures with four legs only. They +had never before seen any living thing with fewer than six,--except men. +Spiders had eight. The dogs did not have mandibles. They did not have +wing-cases. They did not act like insects. It was stupifying! + +And the dogs saw men, whom they had never seen before. Much more +important, they smelled men. And the difference between man-smell and +insect-smell was so vast--because through hundreds of generations the +dogs had not smelled anything with warm blood save their own kind--the +difference in smell was so great in kind that the dogs did not react +with suspicion, but with a fascinated curiosity. This was an +unparalleled smell. It was, even in its novelty, an overwhelmingly +satisfying smell. + +The dogs regarded the men with their heads on one side, sniffing in the +deepest possible amazement,--amazement so intense that they could not +possibly feel hostility. One of them whined a little because he did not +understand. + + + + +_11. WARM BLOOD IS A BOND_ + + +Peculiarly enough, it was a matter of topography. The plateau which +reached above the clouds rose with a steep slope from the valley from +which a hunting-spider's brood had driven the men. This was on the +eastern edge of the plateau. On the west, however, the highland was +subject to an indentation which almost severed it. No more than twenty +miles from where Burl's group had climbed to sunshine, there was a much +more gradual slope downward. There, mushroom-forests grew almost to the +cloud-layer. From there, giant insects strayed up and onto the plateau +itself. + +They could not live above the clouds, of course. There was not food +enough for their insatiable hunger. Especially at night, it was too cold +to allow them to stay active. But they did stray from their normal +environment, and some of them did reach the sunshine, and perhaps some +of them blundered back down to their mushroom-forests again. But those +which did not stumble back were chilled to torpor during their first +night underneath the stars. They were only partly active on the second +day,--if, indeed, they were active at all. Few or none recovered from +their second nights' coldness. None at all kept their full ferocity and +deadliness. + +And this was how the dogs survived. They were certainly descended from +dogs on the wrecked space-ship--the _Icarus_--whose crew had landed on +this planet some forty-odd human generations since. The humans of today +had no memories of the ship, and the dogs surely had no traditions. But +just because those early dogs had less intelligence, they had more +useful instincts. Perhaps the first generations of castaways bred dogs +in their first few desperate centuries, hoping that dogs could help them +survive. But no human civilization could survive in the lowlands. The +humans went back to the primitive state of their race and lived as +furtive vermin among monsters. Dogs could not survive there, though +humans did linger on, so somehow the dogs took to the heights. Perhaps +dogs survived their masters. Perhaps some were abandoned or driven away. +But dogs had reached the highlands. And they did survive because giant +insects blundered up after them,--and could not survive in a proper +environment for dogs and men. + +There was even reason for the dogs remaining limited in number, and +keenly intelligent. The food-supply was limited. When there were too +many dogs, their attacks on stumbling insect giants were more desperate +and made earlier, before the monsters' ferocity was lessened. So more +dogs died. Then there was an adjustment of the number of dogs to the +food-supply. There was also a selection of those too intelligent to +attack rashly. Yet those who had insufficient courage would not eat. + +In short, the dogs who now regarded men with bright, interested eyes +were very sound dogs. They had the intelligence needed for survival. +They did not attack anything imprudently, but they also knew that it was +not necessary to be more than reasonably wary of insects in +general,--not even spiders unless they were very newly arrived from the +steaming lowlands. So the dogs regarded men with very much the same +astonished interest with which the men regarded the dogs. + +Burl saw immediately that the dogs did not act with the blind ferocity +of insects, but with an interested, estimative intelligence strikingly +like that of men. Insects never examined anything. They fled or they +fought. Those who were not carnivorous had no interest in anything but +food, and those who were meat-eaters lumbered insanely into battle at +the bare sight of possible prey. The dogs did neither. They sniffed and +they considered. + +Burl said sharply to his followers: + +"Stay here!" + +He walked slowly down into the amphitheatre. Saya followed him +instantly. Dogs moved warily aside. But they raised their noses and +sniffed. They were long, luxurious sniffs. The smell of human kind was a +good smell. Dogs had lived hundreds of their generations without having +it in their nostrils, but before that there were thousands of +generations to whom that smell was a necessity. + +Burl reached the object the dogs had been attacking. It lay on the +grass, throbbing painfully. It was the larva of an azure-blue moth which +spread ten-foot wings at nightfall. The time for its metamorphosis was +near, and it had traveled blindly in search of a place where it could +spin its cocoon safely and change to its winged form. It had come to +another world,--the world above the clouds. It could find no proper +place. Its stores of fat had protected it somewhat from the chill. But +the dogs had found it as it crawled blindly--. + +Burl considered. It was the custom of wasps to sting creatures like this +at a certain special spot,--apparently marked for them by a tuft of dark +fur. + +Burl thrust home with his lance. The point pierced that particular spot. +The creature died quickly and without agony. The thought to kill was an +inspiration. Then instinct followed. Burl cut off meat for his +tribesmen. The dogs offered no objection. They were well-fed enough. +Burl and Saya, together, carried the meat back to the other tribesfolk. +On the way Burl passed within two yards of a dog which regarded him with +extreme intentness and almost a wistful expression. Burl's smell did not +mean game. It meant--something the dog struggled helplessly to remember. +But it was good. + +"I have killed the thing," said Burl to the dog, in the tone of one +addressing an equal. "You can go and eat it now. I took only part of +it." + +Burl and his people ate of what he had brought back. Many of the +dogs--most of them--went to the feast Burl had left. Presently they were +back. They had no reason to be hostile. They were fed. The humans +offered them no injury, and the humans smelled of something that +appealed to the deepest well-springs of canine nature. + +Presently the dogs were close about the humans. They were fascinated. +And the humans were fascinated in return. Each of the people had a +little of the feeling that Burl had experienced as the tribal leader. In +the intent, absorbed and wholly unhostile regard of the dogs, even +children felt flattered and friendly. And surely in a place where +everything else was so novel and so satisfactory, it was possible to +imagine friendliness with creatures which were not human, since +assuredly they were not insects. + +A similar state of mind existed among the dogs. + +Saya had more meat than she desired. She glanced among the members of +the tribe. All were supplied. She tossed it to a dog. He jerked away +alertly, and then sniffed at it where it had dropped. A dog can always +eat. He ate it. + +"I wish you would talk to us," said Saya hopefully. + +The dog wagged his tail. + +"You do not look like us," said Saya interestedly, "but you act like we +do. Not like the--Monsters." + +The dog looked significantly at meat in Burl's hand. Burl tossed it. The +dog caught it with a quick snap, swallowed it, wagged his tail briefly +and came closer. It was a completely incredible action, but dogs and men +were blood-kin on this planet. Besides, there was racial-memory +rightness in friendship between men and dogs. It was not hindered by any +past experience of either. They were the only warm-blooded creatures on +this world. It was a kinship felt by both. + +Presently Burl stood up and spoke politely to the dog. He addressed him +with the same respect he would have given to another man. In all his +life he had never felt equal to an insect, but he felt no arrogance +toward this dog. He felt superior only to other men. + +"We are going back to our cave," he said politely. "Maybe we will meet +again." + +He led his tribe back to the cave in which they had spent the previous +night. The dogs followed, ranging on either side. They were well-fed, +with no memory of hostility to any creature which smelled of warm blood. +They had an instinct without experience to dull it. The latter part of +the journey back to the tribal cave was--if anybody had been qualified +to notice it--remarkably like a group of dogs taking a walk with a group +of people. It was companionable. It felt right. + +That night Burl left the cave, as before, to look at the stars. This +time Saya went with him matter-of-factly. But as they came out of the +cave-entrance there was a stirring. A dog rose and stretched himself +elaborately, yawning the while. When Burl and Saya moved away, he +trotted amiably with them. + +They talked to it, and the dog seemed pleased. It wagged its tail. + +When morning came, the dogs were still waiting hopefully for the humans +to come out. They appeared to expect the people to take another nice +long walk, on which they would accompany them. It was a brand-new +satisfaction they did not want to miss. After all, from a dog's +standpoint, humans are made to take long walks with, among other things. +The dogs greeted the people with tail-waggings and cordiality. + +The dogs made a great difference in the adjustment of the tribe to life +upon the plateau. Their friendship assured the new status of human life. +Burl and his fellows had ceased to be fugitive game for any insect +murderer. They had hoped to become unpursued foragers,--because they +could hardly imagine anything else. But when the dogs joined them, they +were immediately raised to the estate of hunters. The men did not +domesticate the dogs. They made friends with them. The dogs did not +subjugate themselves to the men. They joined them,--at first +tentatively, and then with worshipful enthusiasm. And the partnership +was so inevitably a right one that within a month it was as if it had +always been. + +Actually, save for a mere two thousand years, it had been. + +At the end of a month the tribe had a permanent encampment. There were +caves at a suitable distance from the slope up which most wanderers from +the lowlands came. Cori's oldest child found the chrysalis of a giant +butterfly, whose caterpillar form had so offensive an odor that the dogs +had not attacked it. But when it emerged from the chrysalis, men and +dogs together assailed it before it could take flight. They ended the +enterprise with warm mutual approval. The humans had acquired great +wings with which to make warm cloaks,--very useful against the evening +chill. Dogs and men, alike, had feasted. + +Then, one dawning, the dogs made a vast outcry which awoke the +tribesmen. Burl led the rush to the spot. They did battle with a monster +nocturnal beetle, less chilled than most such invaders. In the gray +dawnlight Burl realized that the darting, yapping dogs kept the +creature's full attention. He crippled, and then killed it with his +spear. The feat appeared to earn him warm admiration from the dogs. Burl +wore a moth's feathery antenna again, bound to his forehead like a +knight's plumes. He looked very splendid. + +The entire pattern of human life changed swiftly, as if an entire +revelation had been granted to men. The ground was often thorny. One man +pierced his foot. Old Tama, scolding him for his carelessness, bound a +strip of wing-fabric about it so he could walk. The injured foot was +more comfortable than the one still unhurt. Within a week the women +were busily contriving diverse forms of footgear to achieve greater +comfort for everybody. One day Saya admired glistening red berries and +tried to pluck one, and they stained her fingers. She licked her fingers +to clean them,--and berries were added to the tribe's menu. A veritable +orgy of experiment began, which is a state of things which is extremely +rare in human affairs. A race with an established culture and tradition +does not abandon old ways of doing things without profound reason. But +men who have abandoned their old ways can discover astonishingly useful +new ones. + +Already the dogs were established as sentries and watchmen, and as +friends to every member of the tribe. By now mothers did not feel +alarmed if a child wandered out of sight. There would be dogs along. No +danger could approach a child without vociferous warning from the dogs. +Men went hunting, now, with zestful tail-wagging dogs as companions in +the chase. Dor killed a torpid minotaur-beetle alone, save for assisting +dogs, and Burl felt a twinge of jealousy. But then Burl, himself, +battled a black male spider in a lone duel,--with dogs to help. By the +time a stray monster from the lowlands reached this area, it was dazed +and half-numbed by one night of continuous chill. Even the black spider +could not find the energy to leap. It fought like a fiend, yet +sluggishly. Burl killed this one while the dogs kept it busy,--and the +dogs were reproachful because he carried it back to the tribal +headquarters before dividing it among his assistants. Afterward, he +realized that though he could have avoided the fight he would have been +ashamed to do so, while the dogs barked and snapped at its furry legs. + +It was while things were in this state that the way of life for human +beings on the forgotten planet was settled for all time. Burl and Saya +went out early one morning with the dogs, to hunt for meat for the +village. Hunting was easiest in the early hours, while creatures that +strayed up the night before were still sluggish with cold. Often, +hunting was merely butchery of an enfeebled monster to whom any effort +at all was terribly difficult. + +This morning they strode away briskly. The dogs roved exuberantly +through the brush before them. They were some five miles from the +village when the dogs bayed game. And Burl and Saya ran to the spot with +ready spears,--which was something of a change from their former actions +on notice of a carnivore abroad. They found the dogs dancing and barking +around one of the most ferocious of the meat-eating beetles. It was not +unduly large, to be sure. Its body might have been four feet long, or +thereabouts. But its horrible gaping mandibles added a good three feet +more. + +Those scythelike weapons gaped wide--opening sidewise as insects' jaws +do--as the beetle snapped hideously at its attackers, swinging about as +the dogs dashed at it. Its legs were spurred and spiked and armed with +dagger-like spines. Burl plunged into the fight. + +The great mandibles clicked and clashed. They were capable of +disemboweling a man or snapping a dog's body in half without effort. +There were whistling noises as the beetle breathed through its abdominal +spiracles. It fought furiously, making ferocious charges at the dogs who +tormented and bewildered it. But they created the most zestfully excited +of tumults. + +Burl and Saya were, of course, at least as absorbed and excited as the +dogs, or they would have noticed the thing that was to make so much +difference to every human being, not only on the plateau but still down +in the lowlands. This unnoticed thing was beyond their imagining. There +had been nothing else like it on this world in many hundreds of years. +It was half a dozen miles away and perhaps a thousand feet high when +Burl and Saya prepared to intervene professionally on behalf of the +dogs. It was a silvery needle, floating unsupported in the air. As they +entered the battle, it swerved and moved swiftly in their direction. + +It was silent, and they did not notice. They knew of no reason to scan +the sky in daytime. And there was business on hand, anyhow. + +Burl leaped in toward the beetle with a lance-thrust at the tough +integument where an armored leg joined the creature's body. He missed, +and the beetle whirled. Saya flashed her cloak before the monster so +that it seemed a larger and a nearer antagonist. As the creature whirled +again, Burl stabbed and a hind-leg crumpled. + +Instantly the thing was limping. A beetle does not use its legs like +four-legged creatures. A beetle moving shifts the two end legs on one +side and the central leg on the other, so that it always stands on an +adjustable tripod of limbs. It cannot adjust readily to crippling. A dog +snatched at a spiny lower leg and crunched,--and darted away. The +machine-like monster uttered a formless, deep-bass cry and was spurred +to unbelievable fierceness. The fight became a thing of furious movement +and joyous uproar, with Burl striking once at a multiple eye so the pain +would deflect it from a charge at Saya, and Saya again deflecting it +with her cloak and once breathlessly trying to strike it with her +shorter spear. + +They struck it again, and a third time, and it sank horribly to the +ground, all three legs on one side crippled. The remaining three thrust +and thrust and struggled senselessly,--and suddenly it was on its back, +still striking its gigantic jaws frantically in the hope of murder. But +then Burl struck home between two armor-plates where a ganglion was +almost exposed. The blow killed it instantly. + +Burl and Saya were smiling at each other when there was a monstrous +sound of crashing trees. They whirled. The dogs pricked up their ears. +One of them barked defiantly. + +Something huge--truly huge!--had settled to the ground a bare two +hundred yards away. It was metal, and there were ports in its sides, and +it was quite beyond imagining. Because, of course, no space-ship had +landed on this planet in forty-odd human generations. + +A port opened as they stared at it. Men came out. Burl and Saya were +barbarically attired, but they had been fighting some sort of local +monster--the men on the space-ship could not quite grasp what they had +seen--and they had been helped by dogs. Human beings and dogs, together, +always mean some sort of civilization. + +The dogs gave an impression of a very high level indeed. They trotted +confidently over to the ship, and they sniffed cautiously at the men who +had landed. Then their behavior was admirable. They greeted the new-come +men with the self-confident cordiality of dogs who are on the best +possible terms with human beings,--and there was no question of any +suspicion by anybody. The attitude of a man toward a dog is a perfectly +valid indication of his character, if not of his technical education. +And the newcomers knew how to treat dogs. + +So Burl and Saya went forward, with the confident pleasure with which +well-raised children and other persons of innate dignity greet +strangers. + +The ship was the _Wapiti_, a private cruiser doing incidental +exploration for the Biological Survey in the course of a trip after good +hunting. It had touched on the forgotten planet, and it would never be +forgotten again. + + + + +_EPILOGUE_ + + +The survey-ship _Tethys_ made the first landing on the forgotten planet, +and the _Orana_ followed, and some centuries later the _Ludred_. Then +the planet was forgotten until the _Wapiti_ arrived. The arrival of the +_Wapiti_ was as much an accident as the loss of the punched card which +caused the planet to be overlooked for some thousands of years. +Somebody had noticed that the sun around which it circled was of a type +which usually has useful planets, but there was no record that it had +ever been visited. So a request to the sportsmen on the _Wapiti_ had +caused them to turn aside. They considered, anyhow, that it would be +interesting to land on a brand-new world or two. They considered it +fascinating to find human beings there before them. But they could not +understand the use of such primitive weapons or garments of such +barbaric splendor. They had trouble, too, because in forty-odd +generations the speech of the universe had changed, while Burl and Saya +spoke a very archaic language indeed. + +But there was an educator on the _Wapiti_. It was quite standard +apparatus,--simply basic-education for a human child, so that one's +school-years could be begun with a backlog of correct speech, and +reading, with the practical facts of mathematics, sanitation, and the +general information that any human being anywhere needs to know. +Children use it before they start school, and they absorb its +information quite painlessly. It is rare that an adult needs it. But +Burl and Saya did. + +Burl was politely invited to wear the head-set, and he politely obliged. +He found himself equipped with a new language and what seemed to him an +astonishing amount of information. Among the information was the item +that he was going to have--as an adult--a severe headache. Which he did. +Also included was the fact that the making of records for such educators +was so laborious a process that it took generations to compile one +master-record for the instruments. + +Burl, with a splitting headache, nevertheless urged Saya to join him in +getting an education. And she did. And thereafter they were able to +converse with the sportsmen on the _Wapiti_ comfortably enough,--except +for their headaches. + +And all this led to extremely satisfactory arrangements. Sportsmen +could not but be enthusiastic about the hunting of giant insects with +dogs and spears. The sportsmen on the _Wapiti_ wanted some of that kind +of sport. Burl's fellow-tribesmen were delighted to oblige,--though they +had not quite the zest of Burl. They had to acquire educations in their +turn, so they could talk to their new hunting-companions. But the +hunting was magnificent. The _Wapiti_ abandoned its original plans and +settled down for a stay. + +Presently Burl's casual talk of the lowlands produced results. An +atmosphere-flier came out of the ship's storage-compartments. And +through the educator Burl was now a civilized man. He had not the +specialized later information of his guests, but he had knowledge they +could not dream of, and which it would take much of a century to put in +recordable form for an educator. + +So an atmosphere-flier went down into the lowlands through the +cloud-banks. There were three men on board. They had good hunting. +Magnificent hunting. Even more importantly, they found another cluster +of human beings who lived as fugitives among the insect giants. They +brought them to the plateau, a few at a time. Sportsmen stayed in the +lowlands with modern weapons, hunting enthusiastically, while the +transfer took place. + +In all, the _Wapiti_ stayed for two months Earth-time. When it left, its +sportsmen had such trophies as would make them envied of all other +hunters in three star-clusters. They left behind weapons and +atmosphere-fliers and their library and tools. But they took with them +enthusiasm for the sport on the once-forgotten planet, and rather warm +feelings of friendship for Burl. + +They sent their friends back. The next ship to come in found a small +city on the plateau, with a population of three hundred souls,--all +civilized by educator. Naturally, they'd had no trouble building +civilized dwellings or practising sanitation, or developing a neatly +adapted culture-pattern for their particular environment. This second +ship brought more weapons and fliers and news from the first party +about commercial demand for the incredibly luxurious moth-fur, to be +found on only one planet in all the galaxy. + +The fourth ship to land on the plateau was a trading-ship anxious to +load such furs for recklessly bidding merchants in a dozen +interplanetary marts. There were then nearly a thousand people living on +the plateau. They had a natural monopoly,--not of moth-fur and +butterfly-wing fabric, and panels of irridescent chitin for luxurious +decoration, but--of the strictly practical and detailed knowledge of +insect-habits which made it possible to obtain them. Off-planet visitors +who tried to hunt without local knowledge did not come back from the +lowlands. In time, Burl firmly enacted a planetary law which forbade the +inexperienced to go below the cloud-layer. + +Because, of course, a government had to be formed for the planet. But +men with the basic education of citizens everywhere did not fumble it. +They had a job to do which was more important than anybody's vanity. It +was a job which gave deep and abiding satisfaction. When naked, +trembling folk were found in the mushroom-jungles and brought to the +plateau, they had one instant, feverish desire as soon as they got over +the headache from the educator. + +They wanted to go back to the lowlands. It was profitable, to be sure. +But it was even more of a satisfaction to hunt and kill the monsters +that had hunted and killed men for so long. It felt good, too, to find +other humans and bring them out to sunshine. + +So nowadays the forgotten planet has ceased to be forgotten. It is +hardly necessary to name it, because its name is known through all the +Galaxy. Its population is not large, so far, but it is an interesting +place to live in. In the popular mind, it is the most glamorous of all +possible worlds,--and for easily understandable reasons. The inhabitants +of its capital city wear moth-fur garments and butterfly-wing cloaks for +the benefit of their fellows in the lowlands. There is no day but +fliers take off and dive down into the mists. When human hunters are in +the lowlands, they dress as the lowlanders they used to be, so that +lowlanders who may spy them will be sure that they are men, and friends, +and come to them to be raised to proper dignity above the insects. It is +not unusual for a man to be brought up to sunshine, and have his session +with the educator, and be flying his own assigned atmosphere-flier +within a week, diving back above what used to be the place where he was +hunted, but where he has become the hunter. + +It is a very pleasant arrangement. The search for more humans in the +lowlands is a prosperous business, even when it is unsuccessful. The +wings of white Morpho butterflies bring the highest prices, but even a +common swallow-tail is riches, and the fur of caterpillars--duly +processed--goes into the holds of the planet-owned space-line ships with +the care given elsewhere to platinum and diamonds. + +And also it is good sport. The planet is a sportsman's paradise. There +are not too many visitors. Nobody may go hunting without an experienced +host. And off-planet sportsmen tend to feel somewhat queasy after a +session as guest of the folk who have made Burl their planet-president. +Visitors are not so much alarmed at fighting flying beetles in mid-air, +even though the beetles may compare with the hunters' craft in size and +are terrifically tenacious of life. The thing that appalls strangers is +the insistence of Burl's fellow-citizens--no longer only tribesmen--upon +fighting spiders on the ground. With their memories, they like it that +way. It's more satisfactory. + +Not long ago the Planet President of Sumor XI was Burl's guest for a +hunt. Sumor XI is a highly civilized planet, and life there has become +tame. Its president is an ardent hunter. He liked Burl, who is still all +hard muscle despite his graying hair. He and Saya have a very +comfortable dwelling, and now that their children are grown they have +room in it even for a planet president, if he comes as a sportsman +guest. The Planet President of Sumor XI even liked the informal +atmosphere of a house where pleasantly self-possessed dogs curl up +comfortably on rugs of emperor-moth down that elsewhere are beyond +price. + +But the President of Sumor XI was embarrassed on his visit. He and Burl +are both hunters, and they are highly congenial. But the President of +Sumor XI was upset on his last flight to the lowlands. Burl got out of +the atmosphere-flier alone, and for pure deep personal satisfaction he +fought a mastodon-sized wolf spider with nothing but a spear. + +He killed the creature, of course. But the President of Sumor XI was +embarrassed. He wouldn't have dared try it. He felt that, however +sporting it might be, it was too risky a thing for a Planet President to +do. + +But Saya took it for granted. + + * * * * * + +_You're missing the big thrills in science-fiction if you miss any of +the_ + +_ACE SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS_ + + +For instance, here's what the _New York Herald-Tribune_ (just one of the +many applauding reviewers) said about Ace Book D-103: + +SOLAR LOTTERY by Philip K. Dick and THE BIG JUMP by Leigh Brackett + +"The latest Ace double-volume offers, for the first time, two new books +at one low price, and both well worth reading. _Solar Lottery_, a first +novel by one of the most striking young magazine writers, creates a +strange and fascinating civilization for the year 2203, a culture based +upon Heisenberg's idea of randomness and Von Neumann's Games-Theory.... +Against this background two plots develop, one of intricately deadly and +suspenseful palace politics, one of an ambitious attempt to rediscover +our sun's once-glimpsed tenth planet.... As elaborately exciting as +vintage Van Vogt--with an added touch of C. M. Kornbluth's social +satire. + +"_The Big Jump_ is more conventional ... the battle of a monopolist +family to hold the secret of interstellar flight makes a lively +melodrama, with a virtually compelling finale of alien life on a remote +star." + + +_Ace Book D-103--35¢_ + +_Some recent titles in the outstanding_ ACE SCIENCE FICTION _lists are +as follows_: + + D-139 ALIEN FROM ARCTURUS by Gordon R. Dickson + THE ATOM CURTAIN by Nick Boddie Williams + + S-133 (25¢) ADVENTURES ON OTHER PLANETS + A new anthology edited by Donald A. Wollheim + + D-121 THREE FACES OF TIME by Sam Merwin, Jr. + THE STARS ARE OURS! by Andre Norton + + D-118 THE PARADOX MEN by Charles L. Harness + DOME AROUND AMERICA by Jack Williamson + + D-113 ONE IN THREE HUNDRED by J. T. McIntosh + THE TRANSPOSED MAN by Dwight V. Swain + + D-110 NO WORLD OF THEIR OWN by Poul Anderson + THE 1,000 YEAR PLAN by Isaac Asimov + + D-125 THE MAN WHO UPSET THE UNIVERSE + by Isaac Asimov + +Except as marked, any of these books may be obtained for 35¢ (plus 5¢ +handling charges) directly from Ace Books, (Sales Dept.), 23 W. 47th +St., New York 36, N. Y. + +_Order by Number_ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forgotten Planet, by Murray Leinster + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41637 *** |