Anthony opened the door again, to find that Small had slipped out and
was poking with interest in his mind and a stick in his hand at the
body-half of the shattered animal. Anthony grabbed him and carried him
in. When they had bolted the door again, Alice fell into a chair. "That
child gives me heart-failure a dozen times a day."
"That's what kids are for," said Anthony. "About that thing I
killed--I've heard of them, but I've never seen one before. I hope they
don't turn out to be common around here."
"If one finally found its way to us, others will, sooner or later."
"I'm afraid so," he sighed. "They're known as 'snaffles'--flying
snakes. It may make you feel better to learn that they're not
poisonous."
"It doesn't make me feel better in the least. They're horrible anyway."
"Well, how about getting a dog?"
"Send away for one--at once. Any kind, so long as it will kill these
terrible things."
They sent away, and then they waited. A week later, Anthony killed
a badgerine--a vicious, burrowing animal that had the habit of
slaughtering for the pure joy of killing. The same day, a report came
from T. I. Tapling to the effect that the Central Terrestrial Dog
Breeding Station had reported an order for one of their animals, and
that, by virtue of the fact that all orders for Government personnel
on Government projects must be routed through Government channels, the
order had been turned over to Mr. Tapling. However, as Mr. Tapling was
strongly opposed to red tape--so said Mr. Tapling, black on white--he
would not return a new blank order form to Mr. Anthony Kidd, but would
save time, according to the procedure permitted by Regulation MN37VX25,
Code 2, and fill out the necessary form himself.
"Why, the guy's human," said Anthony in surprise.
"Maybe he had a dog himself once," suggested Alice.
"Whatever it is, it shouldn't be long now."
But Mr. Tapling, as an expediter, was not quite as efficient as when
he played the role of obstructor. Another week passed, during which
Anthony killed another octerocap and two snaffles, incurring a slight
wound from one of the latter. The wound showed signs, at first, of
festering badly, and special biostatic treatment was needed to keep
it from getting worse. The week after that, Anthony shot a new animal
which he had never even heard described before. It seemed a baggy
formless mass, with a tiny, almost invisible head. He tossed it aside,
and the other animals, enticed by the meal, came to eat it and then
prowl, audibly drooling, around the house. He shot several more, and
still no dog.
He spent part of his hard-earned salary for a special cable to Mr.
Tapling, and that gentleman, in his hatred of red tape, referred the
message to a subordinate, who passed it on for action to a subordinate
of his own. Anthony never heard of the cable again.
* * * * *
During the next week he killed no less than five different animals.
Alice herself killed a snaffle which tried to get into the house
through an imperfectly barred window. The explosive gun was a great
success, blowing head and most of the neck to bits with one shot, and
knocking Alice to the floor at the same time by means of the recoil.
She was bruised for days, and from that moment she lived in almost as
great terror of the gun itself as of the animals outside.
In the month that followed, Anthony sent a cable each week, and
received no reply to any of them. The number of animals that prowled
around the house increased almost daily. There came the day when Alice
called up the mine in panic.
"Anthony, there are _three_ of them outside the house, all at once. One
at the door, two at different shutters. Rush home! And bring help!"
"Okay," said Anthony, and rushed.
This time he was accompanied by one of his fellow engineers, who was
carrying a surprise for Alice. The first surprise, however, was the one
that Anthony himself received. Tunneling under the concrete foundation
of the house was a badgerine whose presence Alice had not even
suspected. But Anthony had no time to tackle it, for the other animals
were quickly upon him. The first to arrive were the snaffles, and both
Anthony and the engineer with him aimed and shot in a hurry. Anthony's
target fell apart as scheduled. The engineer's kept on coming, but
fortunately overshot its mark, for its intended victim had fallen to
the ground.
Anthony swung his gun around, knocked the snaffle into the air, and
fired right into the middle of an octerocap rushing at him. It fell to
the ground, eight heads howling, and then managed to lift itself and
spring. But by this time the engineer was on his feet again, and while
he broke its back with a blow of his own gun, Anthony disposed of the
remaining snaffle.
It was only then that they heard the shriek from inside. The badgerine
was cutting through the concrete and getting into the house. Anthony
rushed to the door. It was bolted; and Alice, terrified as she watched
the floor give way, either didn't hear his yells or was unable to get
to him. Anthony wasted no time in pounding at the closed door. He
rushed to the hole the badgerine had dug and crawled down after it.
The hole was dark, but fortunately fairly wide, as the badgerine was
a large animal. Anthony was able to pull himself along at a fair rate
of speed. While he was still a dozen feet from the concrete, he heard
the explosive gun go off. He almost felt the shock that must have hit
Alice, and tried to crawl faster, but only scraped his face against
the rock. Actually, it was only a few seconds before he reached the
concrete and dragged himself through, but it seemed like hours.
Alice had turned on the brightest lights, and, thoroughly shaken by the
recoil, was now trying to aim with an unsteady gun at the badgerine,
which had pulled itself together as if gathering strength to spring at
her. The explosion had torn a hole in its side, and blood was staining
the floor--but it wasn't the wound that had saved Alice from its first
attempt to pounce upon her. It was the bright light, which dazzled the
eyes so well adjusted to the black of the tunnel. It had leaped by odor
and missed, and Alice had been cool enough to hold her fire until she
could aim. But this time the animal would not miss.
It sprang, in fact, just as Anthony dragged his own gun to aiming
position, and its teeth were about to close on her throat when his
blast drilled it through the primary heart. Even as it fell, it knocked
her down.
* * * * *
Anthony kicked the animal aside and picked up his wife, who had
fainted. Outside, the man who had accompanied him was pounding on the
door. From behind the bolted door of the inner room, Small was wailing.
Anthony deposited his wife gently on a sofa, and let his friend in. The
man said bitterly, "That Idiot Tapling."
"Never mind Tapling. Let me have your flask."
But Alice didn't need the whisky to revive. She opened her eyes just
as Anthony lifted her again, and then, as her gaze met his own, she
sighed. "What a wonderful man I married. Always just in time."
"That Idiot Tapling," growled the newcomer.
Alice looked at him questioningly, and Anthony said, "This is Carl
Dowley. From the mines. He came along when I told him that I might need
help. And look at what he has."
"A new gun!" exclaimed Alice.
"That's what it looks like," said Dowley. "From surplus, courtesy
of Regulation ND7-Z5. And that's exactly what it isn't." He said to
Anthony, "You saw me aim and fire. But you didn't see anything happen.
Because it didn't go off."
"Let me take a look at it." Anthony opened it up, and stared. "No
loader, no radiation shield, no charge chamber--the guts are missing!"
They looked at each other, and all three said, at the same moment,
almost as if they had rehearsed it, "That Idiot Tapling!"
It was only then that Alice heard Small's wailing and opened the inner
door.
They had thought that day was bad enough. The next day topped it.
The hole the badgerine had dug had been filled with quick-setting
concrete and had no further attraction for animal visitors. Late in
the afternoon, however, something came to the door, and Alice tried
to phone the mine. But the line was dead, and she realized that some
animal, probably another badgerine, had cut through the concrete and
metal shield that protected the phone and visor wires. She was not
seriously upset, however--not then. She simply switched to the radio
sender, and tried to contact the mine along her private wave-length. It
was only when she realized that the power was not on that panic really
gripped her.
The creature at the door kept working steadily, as if unaware that a
half hour after its arrival a competitor had arrived at one of the
shutters, and that a pretty race was on to see which would get Alice as
its prey. She stared at her watch and tried to guess when Anthony would
be coming home. Probably, as far as she could estimate, a half hour
after the first creature had reached her. She might stop it with the
explosive gun, and she might not. And then, if another showed up at the
same window or door, while she was still unsteady from the recoil....
Her only hope was that they would come after her one by one, not too
close together. She considered seriously the possibility of opening the
shutter to allow the entrance of the snaffle which she was sure was
tearing at it, getting rid of that, and then closing the shutter again
while she recovered her steadiness. But she knew that the thing might
come at her faster than she could handle it, and decided to leave the
shutter alone.
For another half hour the animals worked away, each intent upon its
own means of arriving at the victim. Then, for the first time, Alice
heard the sound of a struggle between animals outside the house. The
scratching at the shutter stopped, there came a thin shriek, a crash
against the side, and then silence except for the vibration of the
shutter.
The scratching at the door stopped next. This time there came the
howling of octerocap heads, and then a crash high up, as if the
creature had been hurled with great force against the house. The thing
that had hurled it next pounded on the door, and to her horror Alice
saw the door yield at the same time both at the bottom and at the top,
as if it had been hit by both head and foot at once. Never before had
any animal been large enough to accomplish such a feat. This must be a
predator of a new type, huger and stronger than the others.
For the second time in two days, Alice fainted.
* * * * *
She was awakened a little later by a great pounding on the door. At
first she thought she would faint again, but the unexpected sound of
Anthony's voice reassured her. He was yelling to her to open up.
She lifted the bolt, and Anthony stepped toward her. As she fell
forward to fling her arms around his neck, however, she caught sight of
something over his shoulder ... she closed her eyes and shrieked.
"Take it easy," said Anthony. "He may look frightening, but he's of a
breed that's been trained to be gentle with humans."
"It's--"
"It's the thing that smashed the snaffle and trampled the octerocap.
It's the dog they sent us."
She drew back, and a monster stepped into the room, its clumsy gait
almost knocking the door off its hinges. It gazed at her with saucer
eyes, and then, as Small came toward it, his own little eyes wide
with a puzzled sort of delight, the dog stretched out a tongue bigger
than Small's head and tried to lick Small's face. The boy fell over
backward, squalling in fright.
"No, Rover!" said Anthony sternly.
The dog hung its head in shame.
"Down, Rover!"
The dog stood motionless, Anthony smacked him on the rear. The dog
squatted down on his haunches, his head somewhere near the ceiling.
"See how gentle he is? He may look like a monster, but he wouldn't lay
a paw or a tooth on a human being. They breed his kind for gentleness."
"But--are you sure it's a dog? How--why didn't you--"
"I tried to call you late this afternoon, when he arrived," said
Anthony reasonably, "but the wire was cut. And your radio wasn't
receiving. So I set out to walk him home. Had him on a leash. Not that
I could hold him if he really tried to pull away, but he won't exert
his full force against a human who has him on a leash."
"Then how _did_ he get away? If he killed the octerocap and the
snaffle, he must have got here before you."
"He did. Fact is, I was careless," confessed Anthony shamefacedly. "I
stopped to light a cigaret, and he tugged the leash out of my hand
before I could get a good grip on it. He headed for this place because
it was the only human-looking habitation in the neighborhood. Good
thing, too. He got here in time to take care of those creatures."