Chapter 3

At that horrid noise, the two boys stood frozen a moment, then with one accord raced to the control room, where they peered out of the quartzite ports.

“Great whales, look at that thing!” Jon shouted as they caught their first glimpse outside.

“Yeow!” Jak yelled in amazement. “What do you suppose it is?”

“Never saw anything like it before.”

They stared in awe at the tremendous creature standing in the little clearing, looking belligerently toward their ship. It was so unlike any Earth beast it was no wonder the boys were startled. The huge body was covered with heavily matted fur. It must have been at least a dozen feet long, and stood about eight feet tall. But the striking thing was that the body was triangular, and the beast was three-legged--two at the back and one in front.

There was no tail, and the blocky legs--one at each corner of the weirdly triangular body--seemed to end in clawed feet. The head was shaped something like that of a horse, but the huge mouth, now partly open, was seen to contain great fangs, larger than those of any beast the boys had ever seen in Terran zoos or on any planet they had visited. Two of the tusks were almost like the ones they had seen in pictures of ancient saber-toothed tigers.

The whole getup gave such an effect of fierceness that both boys felt a shiver run down their spines. Jak’s voice was tremulous as he spoke.

“Yipe! I’m sure glad I’m not out there with that.”

Jon was slow in answering. “Yet, if we’re going out at all...” He hesitated, then continued, “We’ll either have to chase it away, or kill it.”

“If we can,” his brother retorted.

“I think our guns’ll handle it,” Jon said. “The question is, how are we going to do it without exposing ourselves?”

Jak thought swiftly. “Maybe we could open the outer lock door a crack, just enough to see through and aim our guns.”

“Yes, I guess that’s it.”

“Don’t say anything to Mother,” Jak cautioned.

“Of course not, silly. Come on, let’s see if we can kill it.”

The two ran to the airlock and opened the inner door. Leaving it open, they examined their guns to make sure they were fully loaded. Then Jon punched the button to open the outer lockdoor. It was possible to do this while the inner one was still open, since there was now air outside to equalize the pressure. When the door had swung open a couple of feet, Jon stopped the motor, and joined his brother, who was peering through the opening.

The huge creature was still facing them, about forty yards from the ship. One of its rear feet was now pawing at the ground, tearing up great chunks of sod, while it roared its mighty challenge time and again.

“I’ll kneel and aim for the left eye. You stand over me and try to hit the other.” Jak took swift command. “Then try for the brain or heart, and keep pumping while our ammo lasts or until we kill it.”

“Right.” Jon took his place and aimed his gun. “Count three and we’ll fire together.”

Jak knelt and steadied his rifle with one elbow on his extended knee.

“One ... two ... three ... fire!”

As the two shots crashed out the creature sprang into the air a couple of feet. A great scream of pain and rage shook the very ground and made the air tremble. It hesitated only a moment, then charged toward the ship at terrific speed.

The boys pumped shots as fast as they could. Both had hit the head, but neither had put out an eye as they had hoped. They kept firing as fast as they could work their guns. Blood spouted from numerous wounds on the beast. But still it came on madly, with swift though lumbering bounds.

“Back quick, and shut the door,” Jak yelled as his hammer clicked on an empty gun. He pushed backward and scrambled to his feet as Jon leaped to the door controls. The heavy door swung shut ... and the boys breathed a sigh of relief.

But almost at once their eyes filled with fear. They cringed back when they felt the ship itself shudder as that heavy body struck against it.

As swiftly as their trembling legs would carry them, they raced back to the control room. They reached it just in time to see the huge triped lunge against the side of the ship a second time ... and again held their breaths as it did so once more.

The beast’s slow mind evidently realized, then, that it could not so easily overthrow this strange, great thing that had appeared so mysteriously in its jungle clearing. It backed away some little distance, still roaring out in that horrible voice.

Once again the beast bunched its mighty muscles for another attack ... when it seemed to stop in the middle of a roar. It wobbled a bit. Slowly its mighty legs buckled, and it sprawled on the ground.

A few spasmodic shudders, a convulsive shiver that ran through the tremendous frame, then it was still.

The boys let out their breaths. They were just beginning to congratulate themselves when the door of the control room opened and their mother’s frightened face appeared.

“What was that, Boys? I was taking a nap, but your shooting woke me, than I felt the ship shake as though there was an earthquake or something.”

“It was noth...” Jon began, but Jak went up to her and put his arm about her.

“It was just a big animal, Mother. Jon and I killed it.”

“An animal? Big enough to jar the ship that way? Where is it?” she gasped.

Jak pointed silently toward the port, and she hurried to look out. At sight of that huge mountain of flesh she cried out, and her face became ever more white and strained.

“What a horrible beast! Are you sure it’s dead?”

“Quite sure. It wasn’t hard to kill.” Jak minimized the danger and made himself grin encouragingly. “I’m going out and hack off some steaks.

Bet they’ll be good, too.”

“You’ll do no such thing!” she cried, shocked. “Now you boys listen to your mother. You’re not to budge outside the ship. I want you to leave this awful world at once.”

The two boys looked at their mother, and suddenly they seemed to feel strength and maturity growing within them. As though the act had been discussed and rehearsed, they both came up and, taking their mother each by an arm, led her out of the control room and back to their living quarters. There they sat her down in her favorite recline seat.

“Look, Mother, you know how much we both love you and want to obey you always,” Jak said earnestly. “But we’re in a peculiar situation here...”

“On a strange planet, and Pop out of commission,” Jon broke in.

“I know Jon and I are still boys,” Jak continued, “but we’re all the men here right now. We think you’ve got to begin trusting us to make the decisions.”

“Jak’s right,” Jon chimed in. “We’re not going to take any fool chances, but I say we’ve got to go ahead and do things just as we think Pop would if he was well and in command. As best we can, that is.”

Mrs. Carver looked from one son to the other doubtfully for a long minute, then smiled tremulously.

“I keep forgetting you’re not my babies any longer,” she said slowly.

“Mothers do that, you know. You’re both almost grown men; I know you have good minds, almost mature minds. The various things you’ve been through have done that. So I release you from my apron strings. You two take charge, and do whatever you feel necessary.”

They threw themselves on their knees, one on either side of her, their arms about her.

“Oh, Mother, we didn’t mean it like that!”

“We never felt you had us tied to your apron strings, Mom,” Jon added.

“We still want to be your boys, even though we do have to act like men--at least until Pop takes charge again.”

Her smile now was warm and tender, all hesitancy and most of the fears gone. “Mr. C. and I have tried to make you self-reliant and resourceful, and he’ll be as proud of you as I am. You’re right--you are the men of the party and must do whatever you decide should be done. But be careful,” she could not help adding.

“We will, Mother.”

“We think just as much of us as you do,” Jon quipped.

They left her sitting there, then, and went back to the control room.

As they came close to the window-ports they peered through eagerly, and were surprised to see the huge carcass of the triped literally covered with strange looking winged, featherless but fur-covered, bird-things.

The latter had large, sharp beaks, with which they were tearing great gobs of flesh from the hulk, gulping them down with ravenous relish.

“Scavengers!” Jon exclaimed, his eyes glued to the scene.

“Yes, there go our steaks.” Jak’s tone was so lugubrious that Jon looked up and laughed. “I had hoped for some fresh meat.”

“There’ll be plenty later on,” Jon consoled his brother. “Probably this one would’ve been too tough, anyway.”

Jak suddenly chuckled. “Yes, like the fox said, the grapes were probably sour.”

They grinned companionably at each other, then turned back to watch through the port again. So numerous and so voracious were the scavenger birds that within a few minutes they had even that mammoth carcass stripped of flesh, leaving only the huge bones. One by one, the birds then flew into the forest, the last ones fighting among themselves for the few remaining scraps of stringy flesh or entrails before they, too, took wing.

“Shall we try it now?” Jak asked after the last of the bird-things had gone.

“Might as well. We sure don’t want to be cooped up here forever.”

They went back to the airlock again, making sure their guns were reloaded and their ammo belts filled. When both boys were in the lock, Jon punched the button that closed the inner door, then opened the outer one. “Safer for Mom to have one of them shut,” he exclaimed.

The two stood there a moment, looking all about them. Except for that strange pile of huge bones, now covered thickly with some sort of reddish, chitinous-covered, ant-like insects, the clearing seemed empty of all life except the peculiar, flower-like grasses.

Jon climbed down to the ground and Jak followed closely. They walked a short distance away, then turned and looked back, scanning carefully in all directions to make sure no enemy was at their backs.

“Let’s go over and study that jungle a bit,” Jak suggested when they were sure their rear was not, apparently, menaced.

Jon had been looking at the remains of the beast. “I’d like to try to salvage those tusks,” he said, and with Jak at his side went up to them. The two boys managed, after considerable work, to get the great fangs out of the jaws. They brushed off the clinging insects, then ran back and placed the tusks inside the lock.

“Thanks, Owl. Now we’ll go take a look at your trees. Then I want to examine the tubes and the outside of the ship. But we’d better stick together, at least this first time. So I’ll sort of cover you, then when you’ve had a looksee, we’ll go back and you keep guard while I see what shape the boat’s in.”

“Right. Let’s get going.”

Once past the seared place, they found that the peculiar, flower-tipped grasses were as stiff as wheat stubble. The grass-blades were knife sharp, but unable to penetrate the heavy, knee-high leather boots the boys wore.

Jak stooped to examine and study them. “The blossoms all seem to have three of these whitish petals,” he said as he rose at last, “and that yellowish bulb in the center will be the seed pod.”

When they started on again, they found walking difficult until they learned the trick of scuffling along without trying to raise their feet above the tops of the grasses each step. Then it was easier, particularly since the gravity here was about five per cent less than that of Terra, so they weighed less and their strength consequently seemed greater.