It was like the head of an octopus joined to the body of a
boa-constrictor, but head and neck were both of the same ghastly, livid
grey as the other two creatures. It was evidently blind, too, for it
took no notice of the brilliant glare of the searchlight, but it moved
rapidly towards the two scrambling forms, its long white feelers
trembling out in all directions. Then one of them touched the smaller of
the two shapes. Instantly the rest shot out and closed round it, and
with scarcely a struggle it was dragged beneath the water and vanished.
[Illustration: _A hideous shape rose out of the water behind them._]
Zaidie uttered a little low scream and covered her face again, and
Redgrave said:
"The same old brutal law you see, life preying upon life even on a dying
world, a world that is more than half dead itself. Well, I think we've
seen enough of this place. I suppose those are about the only types of
life we should meet anywhere, and I don't want to know much more about
them. I vote we go and see what the invisible hemisphere is like."
"I have had all I want of this side," said Zaidie, looking away from the
scene of the hideous tragedy, "so the sooner we go, the better I shall
like it."
A few minutes later the _Astronef_ was again rising towards the stars
with her searchlights still flashing down into the Valley of Expiring
Life, which had seemed to them even worse than the Valley of Death.
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