However, Randall didn't know the full extent of the Kralons' inhumanity. Zor Ala hadn't had time to tell him that not all the human arrivals in the world of the Kralons were still in the stockade. There hadn't been time to discuss the fate of sixteen humans who had never come back from their appointments with their strange captors! Just then the stockade door opened and a harsh voice rasped: "First human will come now." The companions looked at each other, then Randall started to step forward, but Blake Garnet was ahead of him. The hunter stepped through the door, head held high, a saturnine grin on his rugged features. "Just my meat," he called back. "An ant with Elephantiasis should be fair prey for a big game hunter." When the door had closed behind Garnet, Angus McClellan grinned a little wryly at Randall. "A great a'nt is sometimes okay," he drawled, "if her name is Sarah, and she leaves you a pile of jack." Randall grinned back at him. He recognized the other's wisecracking as an attempt to keep up the morale of the party. "Which species do you prefer?" he asked. The lanky Australian squinted. "Wa--al," he said. "Don't know but what I'd prefer the Kralons to Aunt Sarah, when she had her dander up." The companions grinned feebly. It was hard to even attempt cheerfulness, when God alone knew what might lie on the other side of that bare metal door. It seemed hours that they waited for Blake Garnet to come back. But he never came. Instead, again the door opened, and a harsh voice rasped: "One more now." Randall was first this time, with McClellan close at his heels. The voice rasped sharply: "Only one at a time." And McClellan turned back slowly. Randall found himself on a hard smooth path outside the stockade, and waiting for him was a smaller edition of the gigantic creature he had glimpsed while he and his companions were in the net. This Kralon was not much larger than Randall, but the agent shuddered instinctively at its repulsive appearance, and at the strange, nauseating odor it exuded. The creature turned and led the way down the path. Randall followed. The weird creature led the way into a great high-domed structure of gray stone. It led Randall down a huge hallway from which hundreds of openings diverged to lesser corridors leading to other parts of the massive building. Then the hall they were following evolved into a great central chamber, lighted with a weird blue glow which emanated from the walls and ceiling of the huge room. * * * * * In a semicircle, facing Randall, sprawled ten enormous Kralons, their huge mandibles clacking like monstrous telegraph keys. But it was the central figure which held Randall's attention. In the center of the semicircle, the eleventh Kralon crouched before a massive instrument of wood and metal. And as Randall and his guide entered the room, the monster started to finger a yard-long keyboard surprisingly similar to that of a huge pipe-organ.