There was nothing in the bushes, and yet he thought the moss beneath them looked flattened, as if something had lain there watchfully. Were there two of the beasts? Was one still in the marsh, among the reeds, while its mate stalked him here? His spine crept, and he glanced over his shoulder. He went softly on. Beyond the bushes, the ground rose again in a high bank that overlooked the marsh, and all along this bank grew the lustrous red flowers. They were larger than poppies, emphatically vermilion so that they stood out among the dark greens and browns. They had hairy stalks as thick as a man's wrist, and all about them buzzed the snouted little beetles the survey team had named _leptorrhinus_. Fenner stood before the flowers thoughtfully. Their leaves were broad, and close to the ground, but underneath one of them he could see a small cage of white: the clean rib bones of some animal. He went closer, bending to peer. Brittle bones, some with rags of skin clinging to them, were scattered here and there on the ground. There were also the empty wing-cases of some very large flying insects, as big as crows, spotted yellow and black. If he was right, this was the lair of the beast itself. And just beyond these flowers, or even among them, itself vermilion now, the thing might be lying. He straightened cautiously, holding himself ready for a sudden attack. And as he came erect, he was conscious of a curious light-headedness. It was like inhaling too much oxygen. His ears rang and he felt giddy. He took a step, and it was as if the ground heaved under his feet like a living thing. A group of flowers before his eyes appeared to increase in size, and to sway towards him. He shook his head to dispel the illusion. He staggered a few steps away, and it seemed to him that the flowers reached after him on stalks that became incredibly elongated, like red worms, bristling all their length with coarse hairs. At that precise instant, the beast charged. Fenner saw it in midair, and in his dizziness it seemed to move very slowly, so slowly that his automatic movement with the net-capsule was, by comparison, leisurely. He squeezed the capsule; the net shot out and opened in the air. It missed the beast by an inch or so and fell among the flowers. The beast struck Fenner full in the chest and bowled him over. Its antennae bent towards his face, all his weight rested on him. Its jaws were open. He closed his eyes. * * * * * Gorsline and Hakim, using their wrist-trackers, found them less than half an hour later. Hakim, a little in the rear, threw up his gun but Fenner snapped, "Don't shoot!" "Are you all right?" Gorsline said incredulously. Fenner was sitting up with one arm around the neck of the beast which, at Hakim's movement, had recoiled. "I'm fine," he said. "Speak softly." "What ... what _is_ that thing?" Hakim asked.