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monster. Protruding from the rim was a stringy, jointed something that looked like—yes, it was!—a grotesque but recognisable arm and hand. As he watched, the lumpy fingers fumbled with a blade of grass, tugged, uprooted it.
    “Major Gumbs!” said McCarty. “It will be your task to locate the following articles, as quickly as possible. One. A surface suitable for writing. I suggest a large leaf, light in color, dry but not brittle. Or a tree from which a large section of bark can be easily peeled. Two. A pigment. No doubt you will be able to discover berries yielding suitable juice. If not, mud will do. Three. A twig or reed for use as a pen. When you have directed me to all these essential items, I will employ them to write a message outlining our predicament. You will read the result and point out any errors, which I will then correct. When the message is completed, we will return with it to the camp, approaching at night, and deposit it in a conspicuous place. We will retire until daybreak, and when the message has been read we will approach again. Begin, Major.”
    “Well, yes,” said Gumbs, “that ought to work, except—I suppose you’ve worked out some system for holding the pen, Miss McCarty?”
    “Fool,” she replied, “I have made a hand, of course.”
    “Well, in that case, by all means. Let’s see, I believe we might try this thicket first—” Their common body gave a lurch in that direction.
    George held back. “Wait a minute,” he said desperately. “Let’s at least have the common sense to finish this meal before we go. There’s no telling when we’ll get another.”
    McCarty demanded, “How large are these creatures, Major?”
    “Oh—about sixty centimeters long, I should say.”
    “And we have consumed nine of them, is that correct?”
    “Nearer eight,” George said. “These two are only half gone.”
    “In other words,” McCarty said, “we have had two apiece. That should be ample. Don’t you agree, Major?”
    George said earnestly, “You’re wrong, Miss McCarty. You’re thinking in terms of human food requirements, whereas this organism has a different metabolic rate and at least three times the mass of four human beings. Look at it this way—the four of us together had a mass of about three hundred kilos, and yet twenty hours after this thing absorbed us, it was hungry again. Well, these animals wouldn’t weigh much more than twenty kilos apiece at one G—and according to your scheme we’ve got to hold out until sometime after daybreak tomorrow.”
    “Something in that,” Gumbs said. “Yes, on the whole, Miss McCarty, I think we had better forage while we can. It won’t take us more than half and hour longer, at this rate.”
    “Very well. Be as quick as you can.”
    They moved on to the next pair of victims. George’s brain was working furiously. It was no good arguing with McCarty, and Gumbs was not much better, but he had to try. If he could only convince Gumbs, then Bellis would fall in with the majority—maybe. It was the only hope he had.
    “Gumbs,” he said, “have you given any thought to what’s going to happen to us when we get back?”
    “Not quite my line, you know. Leave that to the technical fellows like yourself.”
    “No, that isn’t what I mean. Suppose you were the C.O. of this team, and four people had fallen into this organism instead of us—”
    “What, what? I don’t follow.”
    George patiently repeated it.
    “Yes, I see what you mean. And so—”
    “What orders would you give?”
    Gumbs thought a moment. “Turn the thing over to the bio section, I suppose. What else?”
    “You don’t think you might order it destroyed as a possible menace?”
    “Good Lord, I suppose I might. No, but you see, we’ll be careful what we say in the note. We’ll point out that we’re a valuable specimen, and so on. Handle with care.”
    “All right,” George said, “but suppose that works, then what? Since it’s out of your line,