Jay Williams

“ You're familiar with this, Bodkin, you were with me all four times. But I haven't told you yet, Hagen. Those large banks of red flowers always grow near marshy areas. The marshes are thick with those furry reeds, the ones that look like giant bulrushes that have opened their seed pods. I have found two things: one, numbers of bones and exoskeletons among the flowers and the reeds, and two, in one place, in the mud, a definite mark as if a heavy body had rested there. There was a scent-spoor; the tracker confirmed it. ”

“ Hakim said.
"Why, appearances are deceiving. If a man who had never seen a dog before were to see one jump up on its master, he might think the creature was attacking the man. Putting two and two together, I was sure this animal lived among the red flowers and was stalking me for its dinner. But it was stalking me, and it rushed at me, only because it wanted to protect me."
"Protect you? From what?"
"Well, I was right, you see. There is a beast of prey here which uses a form of mind-paralysis in order to stun its victims." ”

“ Listen, Gorsline, I've just seen Bodkin. This is dreadful. Three in one week!"
"I agree," Gorsline said, taking the drink Fenner had made for him. "Let's pack up and go home. Shall we?"
Fenner relaxed on the middle of his spine in an easy-chair, and folded his hands together, peering over them at the chief who sat down and stood up and sat down again. You'd never know that man was a capable organizer, he said to himself. Astonishing how people can betray their own appearances—seldom what they seem. ”

“ Fenner sighed, glancing at Bodkin on the litter. Behind the plastic protection of his mask the man's face was a dark purple; his chest rose and fell spasmodically and there was a faint line of foam on his lips.
Gorsline slipped off his suit, and put it over his arm. Then he and Fenner walked together up the ramp to the Common Room.
"I need a drink," he said. "And a smoke. It's awful not being able to smoke out there."
"You should cultivate Aristotelian moderation," Fenner said, with a grin. "It is far wiser in a Planet Biological Survey Station." ”

“ Fenner sat up abruptly and slapped his hands together. "I'm certain I'm right," he said. "It must be some sort of animal. The fact that you didn't notice anything doesn't mean a thing; any hostile animal would be exceedingly cautious and probably carefully camouflaged as well. The one thing you noticed—that it was so quiet—seems to me to indicate that something was prowling nearby."
"That is so," said Gorsline. "You remember, Hakim, there were no bird calls, no rustlings, none of the amphibians cheeping."
Dark-faced Hakim nodded. ”

“ Gorsline exclaimed. "Then it must have been lurking—one like it, at any rate—each time we came near the flowers."
"Yes. It would have saved Bodkin," Fenner said, "but it was afraid of the rest of you. You were so many, so noisy—"
"But why should it try to save us?" Hakim said. "If it is an animal, I mean."
Fenner shrugged. "Why did the first dog become domesticated, and how did it happen? Perhaps," he said softly, "there were once other beings here who were its masters. One thing is clear to me: this creature is very intelligent. ”

“ I should judge that their use of the mind-paralysis is automatic, but we are too big and too many for them to actually attack us. That is why, although poor Bodkin and the others succumbed, the flowers never tried to go for them. ”

“ These were thick clumps of low shrubs, their branches a naked and repellent pink, covered with spiny leaves on which a thick, pungent oil gathered during each day. It apparently served to attract small insects which the leaves closed over in much the same way as the Venus fly-catcher, of Earth. ”