He was a little too late. The noise of the explosion rang out.
McCracken said, "Sorry, sir, I didn't hear you until my finger had
already squeezed the trigger. But I wasn't trying to hit anything that
was alive. There was something that looked like a rock on that ridge--"
The words died away in his throat. Lamoureux lifted his eyes and saw
something hovering in front of them, high in the air. It had eyes and
a mouth and, from these features, he knew that it was a huge head, as
large as a fair-sized house. There was a long, interminable stretch of
neck behind it, and somewhere in the rear he felt sure was a monstrous
body. But he wasted no time searching for that.
The eyes were staring at the men unblinkingly. These eyes alone were
bigger than the men were. Then the neck stretched out and the head came
poking down.
* * * * *
Lamoureux turned and ran. It had been years since he had done much
physical exercise, but he made up for them now. Then, too, as the
captain of the expedition, he felt that the men might expect a certain
amount of leadership from him; it was with some dismay that he
discovered that all the rest were ahead of him. Picking up speed, he
passed Sprott, then Marsden, and then Gronski. Ahead of him someone
stumbled, and Lamoureux wasted a precious second helping the man to his
feet.
The huge head opened, and a roar that almost knocked out his eardrums
vibrated through Lamoureux's body. The ground shook under him. That
meant that the whole creature, whatever it was, was coming after
them. Gronski and Sprott passed him as if someone had stuck a needle
into them, and Lamoureux, sobbing for breath, tripped over a rock and
plunged headlong.
The ground beside him trembled as if it were being rocked by a series
of quakes. A deep shadow fell over him, and Lamoureux tried to dig his
prone body into the ground and not breathe. From far ahead, a scream of
terror split the air.
Then the quakes and the shadow had passed, and Lamoureux dared to lift
his head. Far ahead, he could make out the gigantic neck stretching
into the air, its outline already vague through the falling snow. A few
feet away from him lay Gronski, and a little further on McCracken.
None of the other men were in sight.
The valiant McCracken, his rifle still clutched to him, was aiming at
the vanishing figure. Lamoureux said, "Don't bother, McCracken. You've
already done enough harm."
"I just thought I'd get a shot at him, sir, while he was excited. He
wouldn't know where it came from."
"He knew the first time. Don't bother, I say. You can't hurt him, and
he can do plenty to you."
"All right, Captain."
Lamoureux brushed some of the snow off him and tried to catch his
breath. "McCracken, if you're really anxious to play with your gun, you
may fire into the air. Five times."
"Yes, sir."
McCracken fired, and they waited. Lamoureux said, "I hope nobody was
hurt. I don't think any of them, if they're alive, are too far away to
hear those shots. We'll wait for them to assemble here and then start
out for those mountains again."
"Yes, sir. Except, Captain, that it may be a little difficult--"
"What'll be difficult?"
"Finding those mountains. They just don't look the same."
Lamoureux stared. The mountains stretched into the air exactly the same
as before, the same scarlet and gold colors glowing on their peaks, the
same shadows on their sides. But the saddlebacked ridge between them--
Lamoureux looked again. The entire ridge was gone.