You
might bring the cognac decanter up too."
Zaidie was not at all sorry to obey him, for the horrible sight had
almost sickened her.
They were still under the arch of the rings, and so, when the full
strength of the R. Force was directed against the body of Saturn, the
vessel sprang upwards like a projectile fired from a cannon.
Redgrave went back into the conning-tower to see what happened to their
assailant. It was already trying to detach itself and sink back into a
more congenial element. As the pressure of the atmosphere decreased its
huge body swelled up into still huger proportions. The scaly skin on the
two heads and necks puffed up as though air was being pumped in under
it. The great eyes protruded out of their sockets; the jaws opened
widely as though the creature were gasping for breath.
Meanwhile Murgatroyd was seeing something very similar at the after end,
and wondering what was going to happen to his propellers, the blades of
which were deeply imbedded in the jelly-like flesh of the monsters.
The _Astronef_ leaped higher and higher, and the hideous bodies which
were clinging to her swelled out huger and huger. Redgrave even fancied
that he heard something like the cries of pain from both heads on either
side of the conning-tower. They passed through the inner cloud-veil, and
then the _Astronef_ began to turn on her axis, and, just as the outer
envelope came into view the enormously distended bulk of the monsters
collapsed, and their fragments, seeming now like the tatters of a burst
balloon than portions of a once living creature, dropped from the body
of the _Astronef_, and floated away down into what had been their native
element.
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