Its third leg slid up again into its body; and with padding little steps it came forward. I could see it better now. Was it clothed? Was it living tissue, or wholly metal? For a moment there seemed no answers. Then I realized that there was no detachable clothing. A body of animal tissue, or mineral? Perhaps both. Perhaps neither. A substance different. But I could see that parts of it were rigid, and parts of it quivering. Down the front of its square little body rows of knobs protruded; and as I stared, one of them shifted aside and a little knife-like finger came out on a tentacle arm and waved at me. Then I saw what might have been called its face--a mobile, flexible-looking circular area in the front center of its body. A hole there seemed to glow as though an eye were in it. A round orifice from which the voice issued was on one side of it; and on the other, a hole that could have been an ear. And over them there was a crescent-shaped little area which was greenly luminous--the little brain in there, visibly palpitating. "I told Torkine," the Physical said, "that he might see you when you recovered. Blair will bring you now." Its feet turned. With little precision steps it marched out and vanished in the dim corridor. I stared at Johnny, and now suddenly he gripped me. "We'll have to go," he murmured swiftly. "Listen, we'll be landing in an hour or two--this may be the last chance I have to talk to you alone. I been tryin' to get away from this accursed thing for six months now. Escape--I want to get back to Earth." "And you couldn't?" "Good God, no. Wait 'til you understand the--the monster better. It's got all us humans trapped. Helpless. Sometimes it treats us kindly--it's got its own ideas about building up a world of humans, for it to rule. But when you make it mad, the wrath of the monster is horrible!" His words were making me shudder. "You have a wife," I murmured. "Where is she?" "She's dead," he said. His voice went drab. "Eight months ago, by Earth-time, I guess it was. She--she displeased the Supreme One, and so it killed her. Four of the Physicals just--just grabbed her arms and legs and they pulled until she--she came apart!" His voice trailed away. I could only stand with my hand on his shoulder, staring mutely at him as I shuddered. Then he was leading me along the corridor which ran like the spoke of a wheel toward the center of the disc-shaped vehicle. "What I was saying," he went on in his swift murmur. "Torkine and those fifty men of his convict band--I wouldn't trust a damn one of them. The monster likes Torkine, so he's the boss of us humans. But Torkine is planning something murderous. I've been sure of that for quite a while. And this fellow Bragg is married to a girl we got from Mars. Her name's Setta. She's all right."