Kiley stood by the side of his spaceship and stared at the awesome sight. A vast chain of naked mountains sprang up like a row of gigantic teeth to the east--bare, jagged peaks stretching up into dim immensity, twenty and thirty and forty thousand feet in air. Wild savage-looking vegetation swept fiercely around him, trees well over a thousand feet high and looking to be a block wide at their base. Just at a distance of a few feet, a monstrous cliff reared straight upward toward the swirling black-and-gold clouds. It was a strange and utterly primitive world. "Okay, I'm here!" Kiley shouted. "Where are you?" _I will be with you soon_, the alien responded. _Take the jewels from the ship._ "How do I decide which are yours and which are mine?" _Take them all. We will decide once they are out of the ship._ A sudden ripple of terror ran through Kiley, turning the little jewel-thief cold. He felt dwarfed by the sheer magnitude of Thaklaru's world. He wondered where the alien was, what sort of creature he might be. _Your curiosity will soon be ended_, Thaklaru said. _When you have brought the jewels out, I will appear._ Kiley shrugged and started to climb the catwalk that led into the ship. There was little sense in trying to argue with Thaklaru's abilities; if he didn't go willingly, the alien would only force him. He gathered the jewels into a double handful and brought them back outside, dropping them onto a bare patch of reddish-green soil. Returning, he brought the rest of them out. "Okay," he said. "They're all there." _Good. They are lovely._ "Suppose you show up and let's divide these things," Kiley said. "I'm tired of your mental voice--let's hear the real thing." _Very well._ A clap of thunder seemed to split the sky--a deafening, booming noise that made the ground quiver. Kiley cowered in fright as the sound was repeated--and this time, he was able to detect words. "I am Thaklaru!" "Where are you?" "Look upward!" the booming voice cried. Hesitantly, Kiley turned his gaze upward--and gasped. The "cliff" he had thought stood next to him was no cliff at all. It was a vast alien creature, stony and terrifying, whose head vanished in the fuzzy clouds far overhead. Again came the booming noise: "I am Thaklaru!" "I see why you needed an accomplice," Kiley said in a weak voice. "Something--someone of your size--" "Yes. I could never venture into anything as tiny as one of your cities." Kiley licked his lips nervously. "Well--here are the jewels. Let's--let's divide them!" "One bit of business first," the alien's thunderous boom came. "You have served well--but you cannot live." "_What?_" "It is necessary, Kiley. There are ways of extracting information from a man's subconscious--and I would not have my existence known." Suddenly the sky was black. Kiley looked up and saw what could only be a foot--a monstrous, horrible foot--blotting out the sunlight overhead.