asecond, now--"
The last coil moved, slipped from the blunt nose of the liner.
"Rise!" I ordered. "_Rise!_"
I saw the ship rock suddenly, and roar hollowly toward the sky. I feltthe rush of wind made by her passing.
Then, head still elevated and swaying, the two great reddish-brown finsfanning the air like grotesque wings, the serpent lashed out towards us,coming at amazing speed.
* * * * *
Correy, sure that he was observed by the serpent, leaped down from thehuge leaf upon which he had been standing. Hendricks and I, followed byour men, scrambled desperately toward the deep path or lane thatCorrey's ray had cut through the tangled, stinking growth. Correy's planhad given some promise of success, had we had time to put it into properoperation. As it was, neither Hendricks or I had had time to get intoposition.
Hendricks, on my right, was working his way as rapidly as possibletoward the path, but he had a long way to go. Unless a miracle happened,he would be too late to help. The portable ray machines would behelpless against such a mighty bulk, except at close range.
I reached the path and glanced hastily to the right, the direction, fromwhich the great serpent was sweeping down on us. He was less than the_Ertak's_ length away.
"Hide, men!" I ordered. "Under the vegetation--in the muck--anywhere!" Iglanced down the lane to the left, and saw, to my relief, that Correyand his men were a goodly distance away, and still far from the end ofthe swath their ray had cut for them. Then, with the monster toweringalmost over my head. I darted behind a spongy, spotted growth,listening, above the pounding of my heart, to the rapid slithering ofthe serpent's ponderous body.
Of a sudden the sound stopped. I was conscious of an excited warningfrom Hendricks: "He's stopped, sir! _Run!_ He's seen you ... he--"
Startled, I glanced up--directly into the hideous face of the snake.
* * * * *
It seemed to me he was grinning. His mouth was partially open, and thepale, writhing barbels that surrounded his mouth seemed to reach outtoward me. The long and graceful antennae were bent downwardinquiringly, quivering tensely, and his small eyes glowed likewind-fanned coals of fire. The brownish fins were rigid as metal, theretractile claws unsheathed and cruelly curved. He was so close that Icould hear the air rushing through his crater-like breathing holes.
For an instant we stared at each other; he with confident gloating:myself, too startled and horrified to move. Then, as his head shotdownward, I leaped aside.
The scaly head raked the clothes from one side of my body, and sent me,sprawling and breathless, into the welter of sagging weeds.
I heard the sharp whine of my ray generator going into action, but Itook no chances on the accuracy of my men. They were working undertremendous difficulties. As I fell, I snatched an atomic bomb from mybelt, and, as the horrid head drew back to strike again, I threw thebomb with all my strength.
I had thrown from an exceedingly awkward position, and the bomb explodedharmlessly some distance away, showering us with muck and slimyvegetation.
Evidently, however, the explosion startled the serpent, for his headslewed around nervously, and I felt the ground tremble under me as hismighty coils lashed the ground in anger. Scrambling to my feet, I seizedthe projector tube of the disintegrator ray and swept the beam upwarduntil it beat upon that terrible head.
The thing screamed--a high, thin sound almost past the range ofaudibility. Reddish dust sifted down around me--the heavy dust ofdisintegration. In the distance, I could hear the slashing of the tailas it tore through the rubbery growth of weeds.
With half his head eroded by the ray, the serpent struck again, but thistime his aim was wild. The mighty head half buried itself in the muckbeside me, and I swung the projector tube down so that the full force ofthe ray tore into the region above and behind the eyes, where I imaginedthe brain to be. The heavy reddish dust fairly pelted from the uglyhead.
Correy had come running back. Dimly, I could hear him shouting.
"Look out!" I warned him. "Keep back, Correy! Keep the men back! I'vegot him, but he'll die hard--"
As though to prove my words true, the head, a ghastly thing eroded intoa shapeless mass, was jerked from the mud, and two tremendous loops oftortured body came hurtling over my head. One of the huge fins swung bylike a sail, its hooked talons ripping one of Correy's men into bloodyshreds. Correy himself, caught in a desperate endeavor to save theunfortunate man, was knocked twenty feet. For one terrible instant, Ithought the beast had killed Correy also.
Gasping, Correy rose to his feet, and I ran to assist him.
"Back, men!" I shouted. "Hendricks! Get away as far and as fast as youcan. Back! _Back!_" Half dragging Correy, who was still breathless fromthe blow, I hurried after the men.
Behind us, shaking the earth in his death agonies, the monstrous serpentbeat the plain about him into a veritable sea of slime.
* * * * *
From a point of vantage, atop the _Ertak_, we watched for the end.
"I have never," said Correy in an awed voice, "seen anything take solong to die."
"You have never before," I commented grimly, "seen a snake so large. Ittook ages to grow that mighty body; it is but natural that, even withthe brain disintegrated into dust, the body would not die immediately."
"Undoubtedly he has a highly decentralized nervous system," noddedHendricks, who was, as I have said, something of a practical scientificman, although no laboratory worker or sniveling scientist. "And instinctis directing him back toward the sea from which, all unwillingly, hecame. Look--he's almost in the water."
"I don't care where he goes," said Correy savagely, "so he goes there ascarrion. Clark was a good man, sir." Clark was the man the serpent hadkilled.
"True," I said. Making the entry of that loss would hurt; even thoughthe discipline of the Service is--or at least, used to be--very rigid,officers get rather close to their men during the course of many toursof duty in the confines of a little ship like the _Ertak_. "But the_Kabit_, with her nearly two thousand souls, is safe."
We all looked up. The _Kabit_ was no longer visible. Battered, but stillspace-worthy, she had gone on her way.
"I suppose," grinned Correy, "that we'll be thanked by radio." The grinwas real; Correy had had action enough to make him happy for a time. Thenervous tension was gone.
"Probably. But--watch our friend! He's in the water at last. I imaginethat's the last we'll see of him."
* * * * *
Half of the tremendous body was already in the water, lashing it intowhite foam. The rest of the great length slid, twitching, down theshore. The water boiled and seethed; dark loops flipped above thesurface and disappeared. And then, as though the giant serpent had foundpeace at last, the waters subsided, and only the wreaths of white foamupon the surface showed where he had sunk to the ooze that had given himbirth.
"Finish," I commented. "All that's left is for the scientists to flockhere to admire his bones. They'll probably condemn us for ruining hisskull. It took them a good many thousand years to find the remains of asea-serpent on Earth, you remember."
"Some time in the Twenty-second Century, wasn't it, sir?" askedHendricks. "I think my memory serves me well."
"I wouldn't swear to it. I know that sailors reported them for ages, butthat wouldn't do for the laboratory men and the scientists. They had tohave the bones right before them, subject to tests and measurements."
That's the trouble with the scientists, I've found. Their ability tobelieve is atrophied. They can't see beyond their laboratory tables.
Of course, I'm just an old man, and perhaps I'm bitter with the dryingsap of age. That's what I've been told. "Old John Hanson" they call me,and smile as if to say that explains everything.
Old? Of course I'm old! But the years behind me are not empty years. Ididn't spend them bending over little instruments, or compiling rows offigur
es.
And I was right about the scientists--they did put in a protestconcerning our thoughtlessness in ruining the head of the serpent. Theycould only estimate the capacity of the brain-pan, argue about thecephalic index, and guess at the frontal angle: it was a terrible blowto science.
Bitter old John Hanson!
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