There were the five of them in the small space. There were the two
couples facing each other, and Durham on his knees between them. And
then there was something else.
There was a spiky shadow, perfectly black, of undetermined size and
nameless shape, except that it was spiky.
Baya did not quite scream. She pressed against Varnik, and they both
recoiled into the alley mouth. The young couple paled under their
greenness, and they, too, drew back. Durham crouched on the ground.
The shadow bounded and rolled and leaped through the air and hung
cloudlike over Durham's head. Suddenly it shrieked out, in a high,
toneless voice like that of a deaf child, a clatter of gibberish in
which one syllable stood clear, repeated several times.
"Jubb!" said the shadow. "Jubb! Jubb! Jubb!"