with nothing to indicate direction, might just take him farther from his objective.

Early the next morning, he reached the base of the cactus, a solid wall of olive green across the limited horizon of his nether world.

He had no knife, nothing at all with a cutting edge. He didn't want to break his marshelmet, even if he could. He began to crawl around the foot of the giant plant, almost hopelessly seeking an opening.

Surprisingly, he found one, but it was small. It was about eight inches in diameter, and it looked as though it had been gnawed.

Shaan propped his chin on his hands and considered. During the two days he had moved beneath the canal sage foliage, he had seen no sign of animal life.

Except for the Martian natives, intelligent creatures who did not breathe but assimilated oxygen from plants and soil and stored it compressed in their tissues, no animal life had been found on Mars. The Martians, with bodies of almost human size, walked on long, stilt-like legs and were strict vegetarians. Reports by occasional canal settlers that they had found traces of animal life—without seeing the animals—were discounted.

But this hole in the canal cactus looked like it had been made by an animal.

The stems of the canal sage were not large, but they were stiff and woody. Shaan found a dead stalk lying on the ground, broke it to a jagged point and started to work on the edges of the hole.

It took him most of the day, but near nightfall he had enlarged the opening until it would admit him. He crawled into the hollow cactus.

It was darker inside than outside, but not completely dark. He was in a giant, ovoid room lit by a dim green twilight.

It was good to stand up straight again, even though the floor curved downward from his entranceway. The occasional drip of water sounded in his ears. Moving forward slowly, he was able to distinguish a small, shallow pool in the low center of the cactus' hull. Since the shell of the big plant curved downward from the entrance, the pool must have been several feet below ground level.

Shaan had not tasted free water since he had emptied his canteen on the desert and thrown it away four days before. He dropped to his knees, unmindful of their rawness, and drank greedily. The water was fresh and cool, with some of the taste of the cactus plant in 

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