Touch found him something edible almost immediately--he flowed around and over it, absorbing it hungrily. His mass dissolved it almost immediately and ached for more. He slid thin, reaching out in every direction until contact was made, then absorbing the food instantly and moving on. * * * * * Curt, lying in meager shade that would be gone in half an hour when the third and largest sun rose, first saw the movement when it was on the rocks. His already frayed nerves gave a frightened leap. He lay perfectly still. Where he had seen the movement on the rocky shelf there was now nothing. The nothing moved forward. Curt shivered. He was certain he was seeing nothing, and yet his eyes were trying to tell him there was movement. When it reached the flat place and flowed swiftly forward, he realized that it was a liquid animal and was suddenly pointedly conscious of the weight of the pistol against his hip. He watched carefully for the eyes and the stinger, but saw none. That frightened him. If he could not find the brain, he had no mark to shoot at. As he watched, the liquid creature flowed against one of the hardy, sun-browned plants and jerked in reaction. Instantly, it flowed over the plant and absorbed it. The liquid turned momentarily a thin brownish green and then cleared again. Curt watched it with narrowed eyes. It was just possible that this creature ate only plant life. The colonists had realized that the liquid scorpions had fed upon something else before they arrived, but no one had been able to discover what that something was. * * * * * Xen was in the process of absorbing a plant when the vibration sense alerted him. Terror shot through him and he spread thinly across thirty feet of ground and lay motionless, his "sense" telling him frantically that a Sting was hunting nearby. He lay for many degrees of heat, waiting. Sense of vibration and knowing both told him that the Sting was approaching, but uncertainly, searching. Then both senses reacted startledly to a new danger on the other side. New movement! A new feeling that his "sense" could not understand. The Sting was approaching at an angle that would inevitably bring it in contact with Xen. Absorption was the penalty for being caught. Xen was resigned to death, for he could not possibly escape the Sting. And now there was this new sensation on the other side of him. Whatever it was, he had no idea; but likely it was as voracious as the Sting. Now the new thing vibrated jerkily around him and stopped between him and the Sting. The vibrations from the eager Sting accelerated rapidly, eagerly, as it flowed over the ground. Then, for no reason except that the new creature had moved slightly, the Sting recoiled. The jerks were plainly recorded through the earth to Xen; and as he felt the heavy jar, his "sense" told him that the danger from the Sting was past. The Sting was dead.