broken saplings and crushed underbrush.
I ran back into the lab where Weinbaum was sitting, face pale and
drawn, regarding the three shattered empty tanks. The revolver was
on the table and I grabbed it and made for the door.
'Where do you think you're going with that?' he demanded, rising.
'Out to hunt for Vicki,' I snarled. 'And if she's hurt or ' I didn't
finish.
I hurried out into the velvet darkness of the night. Gun in hand,
flashlight in the other, I plunged into the woods, following the trail
blazed by something that I didn't want to think about. The vital
question that burned in my mind was whether it had Vicki or was
still trailing her. If it had her...
My question was answered by a piercing scream not too far away
from me.
Faster now, I ran and suddenly burst into a clearing.
Perhaps it is because I want to forget, or perhaps it is only because
the nigh was dark and beginning to become foggy, but I can only
remember how Vicki caught sight of my flashlight, ran to me,
buried her head against my shoulder and sobbed.
A huge shadow moved toward me, mewing horribly, driving me
almost mad with terror. Stumblingly, we fled from the horror in the
dark, back toward the comforting lights of the lab, away from the
unseen terror that lurked in the dark. My fear-crazed brain was
putting two and two together and coming up with five.
The three cases had contained three something from the darkest
pits of a twisted mind. One had broken loose. Rankin and
Weinbaum had been after it. It had killed Rankin, but Weinbaum
had trapped it in the concealed pit. The second one was
floundering in the woods now and I suddenly remembered that
whatever-it-was, was huge and that it had a hard time lifting itself
along. Then I realized that it had trapped Vicki in a gully. It had
started down easy enough! But getting up? I was almost positive
that it couldn't.
Two were out of commission. But where was the third? My
question was answered very suddenly but a scream from the lab.
And ... mewing.
CHAPTER EIGHT
We ran up to the lab door and threw it open. It was empty. The
screams and the terrible mewing sounds came from the garage. I
ran through, and ever since have been glad that Vicki stayed in the
lab and was spared the sight that had wakened me from a thousand
awful nightmares.
The lab was darkened and all that I could make out was a huge
shadow moving sluggishly. And the screams! Screams of terror,
the screams of a man faced with a monster from the pits of hell. It
mewed horribly and seemed to pant in delight.
My hand moved around for a light switch. There, I found it! Light
flooded the room, illuminating a tableau of horror that was the
result of the grave thing I had performed, I and the dead uncle.
