Dahnjen patted the rifle strapped to his back. "Think you that the Priests alone know anything of science?" he asked.

She looked at the long barrel of the rifle. "What is it?"

"Something the Beast will not like," he promised. "And now, be still. Soon we will be on more level ground, and you will be able to walk."

Some minutes later he set her down, and she walked by his side. But as they moved deeper into the Valley, and into the gloom, a sound began behind them. It was a keening noise, shrill, penetrating, rising and falling with the chill of terror in its pitch.

"The Call!" cried Marima Saan. "Bra Naan calls the Beast! Now we shall surely die!" She clung to him.

He urged her forward again, looking swiftly about him as they went. Finally he spied the rock formation he wanted, and together they crouched in its shadow, waiting. Above them, lancing through the dark mists came the ray from atop the cliff. Dahnjen growled. "He wants to make sure--he's using the Hypno-ray. Good thing it only works on the Beast!"

Ahead of them now they heard sounds. Huge thumping sounds, earth-shaking motions as a monstrous body moved toward them in the darkness.

"The Beast comes!" said Marima tragically. "Oh Dahnjen, what shall we do?" She flung her arms around his neck and clung to him. "Is this the way our love will end?"

He bent his head and kissed her, then he grinned at her. "In just a moment you will learn more about that," he said. "But right now, you crouch down behind me and stay there. As soon as I can see, you'll find out that not only the Priests are possessed of wonderful instruments." He slipped the rifle from his shoulder and held it ready in his hands.

The searching ray swept over them several times, and the third pass found them. Momentarily it outlined them in its light, then swept on, as though in disdain. Finally it halted, down the valley, centered on a lumbering form, outlining it in the darkness so that its head could be seen looming high above the ground.

"The Beast!" breathed Marima.

And now, moving more purposefully, heading straight toward them, the monster came. Although they knew that it could not see them as yet, in the darkness, it did not deviate from its course, and they knew that its feeble mind was under the control of the 

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