Caught by horror, and fearing the worst, Grg and Yrl waited for the God to speak. (_Damn_, John Cotter was thinking. _That was a neat bit of sloppiness, that landing.... Carruthers will chew me out and in again!_ Pause: _Holy cats, I hope the radio isn't busted, or I'll have a helluva wait before they follow up and find me!..._) * * * * * The God was dead. Killed by the giant _plllnk_--a scourge from which, evidently, even the Gods were not spared. The huge _plllnk_, even now creeping around--wrinkle-skinned and detestable, its coloration the same as the God's; the most loathsome sight imaginable ... a god-_plllnk_! Grg and Yrl moved into view, from the shadows of the crater wall. Their thinking trunks tingled with misery, sorrow, bitter anger and disappointment. The _plllnk_ stopped, having sensed them. Then it darted for the hole it had eaten in the God. Yrl moved to intercept it. The _plllnk_ changed course and headed swiftly up a sand dune. With a great bound, impelled by outrage, Yrl was upon it. While Grg touched tentacles with the dead God, in reverent mourning, in terrible sorrow, in loss, in supplication, Yrl shredded the god-_plllnk_. * * * * * Two days later, a second God was detected. It silently circled Phobos from the Universal Eye. It did not land. It silently circled Phobos, and then returned to the Eye. Within the day, it was back, in the company of eleven other Gods. They landed. Joyfully, mortals went forth to meet them. It was quite a battle while it lasted. Joy quickly ended, as the Gods died one by one, each of them showing the holes eaten in their sides by the insatiable _plllnks_. Likewise, eventually, died all the _plllnks_, which presumably had killed the Gods. They fought with strange white flares and crackling blue flashes, which only tickled the hides of the faithful. Then they were shredded. Religious beliefs on Phobos underwent certain basic changes. Such as: the Gods, or at least their Messengers, were known not to be immortal. Nor were the special variety of _plllnk_ which afflicted them.... On Earth, twenty years afterward, word is anxiously awaited of the 4th Mars Expedition. END End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The God-Plllnk, by Jerome Bixby