The Red Dust

xton-B

to the ground beneath, powdering him with its fine spores. He came to rest with his naked shoulder half-way th

ith the beetle. Burl's spear had struck it in an awkward spot, and it was rocketi

mistake, he had slain this infinitely more worthy v

f toadstools, but he could distinguish no details-nothing but forms. He heard the beetle flo

t was zigzag and uncertain, and though longer than the first had been, it ended similarly, in a heavy fall

in his absorption in the chase. He darted after his prey, fleet-footed a

lung itself about madly, insanely, fighting it knew not what, striking out with colossal wings and legs, daze

g among the mushroom thickets in spasms that were constantly more prolonged and more agonized, but nevertheless flyin

h successive, panic-stricken struggle on the ground just after the beetle had take

rl did not know, nor did the question occur to him at the moment. He waited for the beetle to be still, trembling with excitement and eagerness.

caused by Burl's seizure of the spear. A great wing-cover knocked Burl twenty feet, and flung him against the base of a mu

sound. The insect had torn the covering of one of the red mushrooms, tightly packed with the fatal red dust. At the noise, Bur

nd life, weakened and tortured by the spear and the horrible spores of the red mushr

he was frightened and alone, lost from his tribe, and with no faintest notion of how to find them. He crouched beneath a huge toadstool an

roamed the aisles of the mushroom forests, seeking the places beneath which their instinct told them fungoid dainties awaited the courageo

a bursting fungus casting loose its freight of deadly dust upon the air. Only when day came again, and the chill dampness of the night was succe

d sprang into the air. Had Burl lived thirty thousand years earlier, he might have likened the effect to that of shells bursting fro

and limp. Burl approached speculatively. He had come even before the ants appeared to take their t

ercely toothed legs were drawn close against the body. The many-faceted eye

tle's during that mad flight, and at the final crash, when Burl shot away from the fear-crazed insect, the weight of his body had forced the spearpoint

administered the coup de grace. It was so much more pleasant to look upon himself as the mighty slayer that he hacked off one

he beetle had flown. As a matter of fact, the course of the beetle had been in turn directed toward every point of the compa

clasped in his hand with his spear. He turned to look at his victim of the night before just before plunging into the near-by mushroom forest, and saw that it was already

n barely an hour of daylight in which the ants might seek for provender, yet in that little time the freshly killed beetle had been found and was being skilfully and carefully

even the flesh-flies had arrived, who dropped their living maggots upon the creature. The blue-bot

ive beetles and tiny insects burrowed below the reeking b

licacy of the sense which could lead them to a source of food, though accident could an

y flesh-flies dropped their squirming offspring upon a limp form that was alread

ntly through the aisles of tangled stalks and the spongy, round heads of the fungoids. Now and then he saw one of the red toadstools, and mad

an hour or more, looking constantly for familiar landmarks that might guide him to his tribe. He knew that if he cam

ad a distinct notion that he was not moving in a straight line, he did not realize that he was actually moving in a colossal half-circle. After walking stead

changing cry. It had begun as a shout of triumph, and ended as a scream of fear. Then they heard hurried wing-beats as a creat

the blackness, where their leader had vanished, and begin to tremble, wonderi

llegiance, but their submission had been all the more com

fact, it was security because the tribe felt safe under his tutelage. Now that he had vanished, and in a fashion t

danger. The tribesmen visualized Burl caught in fiercely toothed limbs, being rent and torn in mid air by horny, insatiable jaws,

lifted a hand to defend themselves, but would have fled despairingly, would probably have scattered and lost touch with one

anic and fear. Saya was probably the most pitiful of all the group. Burl was to have been

g the night before. They spoke in hushed and fearful tones, huddled together, searching all the horizon for i

s tough skin was taut and bulging, resisting the pressure of the spores within. But slowly, as the mor

it strove to expand. The opposing forces produced a tension that grew greater and greater as

tore across its top, and with a hollow, booming noise the compressed mass of deadly spores

he almost imperceptible breeze wafted it slowly toward them. Men and women, boys and girls, they fled in a mad rush from the deadly stuff, not pausing

the others had done so, and ran more carelessly, struggling with a half-for

foot, and she fell headlong, striking her head violently against a second stone. Then she lay quite still

ed out, too, so that though it had been a rounded cone at first, it flowed over the minor inequalities of the groun

ay unconscious on the earth, eddies within the moving mass could be seen, and the edges took on a s

that it was, in fact, a living creature. But when the misty edges of the cloud were no more than twenty-five yards from Saya's prostrate body a breeze from one side sprang up-a vagrant, fitful little breeze,

ently with faint and irregular breaths. Her head had struck a sharp-edged s

n two of them, however, just where they parted, twin tufts of reddish threads appeared, twinkling back and forth, and in and out. As if they had given som

red upon her, explored the ground by her side, moving all the time in feverish haste, and at last dived i

esently the earth seemed to billow at a spot along Saya's side, then at another. Perhaps ten minutes after the arrival of the third beetle a little rampart had reared itself all

cavated the earth from the under side of such prizes as they came upon, then turned upon their backs

t of fortune had sunk below the surrounding surface and the loos

young, gorging upon the plentiful supply of succulent foodst

tles, they had declared that fresh meat or living meat would not be touched. They based their statement solely upon the fact that th

were keen rivals of the brightly arrayed beetles. Usually the tribes of creatures who worked in

come to tear the flesh from her slender, soft-skinned body. She breathed gently and irregularly, her face drawn with the sorrow of the night befo

ed again, and a beetle made his way to the open air. He moved hastily about, inspecting the progres

s over the landscape, and was struck by its familiarity. It was, in point of fact, ver

he sensation of recognition, and then trying to ap

the ground. The loose earth cast up about her body had begun to fall in lit

re him. Perhaps a little farther on he would come to the place. He hurried a little. In a moment he recognized his location. T

e, deadly powder. Burl understood why the tribe had gone, and a cold sweat came upon his body. Was Saya safe, or had the whole

of mushrooms on the ground. Here was a spear, cast away by

feet to the right of the path. Burl dashed on, frantic with anxiety about the tribe, b

f minutes she would be hidden from view. Burl ran madly past her, too busy searchin

hing and breaking of the brittle, spongy growths. Twin tapering antenn? appeared, and the

the ground by six crooked, saw-toothed limbs. Its huge mult

ideous machine. Burl fled on the instant, running as madly away

his eye, and there was impressed upon his brain with photographic completeness the picture of Saya, lying limp and helpless, sinking slowly into t

Beneath him Saya, whom he loved. There was certain death lurching toward him on evill

rest the great beetle, his puny spear held defiantly at the ready. In his left hand he held just such a leg as those which bore the living creature toward him. He had torn it from the b

umsily, then seized the missile in its fierce jaws and crushed it in frenzy of rag

ntents of the horny armor, confusing the blow with the object that had delivered it, and evidently satisfied that an enemy

gers. Earth fell from her shoulders, from her hair, and from the mass of yellow fur about her middle, and three little beet

e death itself, but dumb misery smote him, and he laid her down gently, while te

having slain one huge beetle and put another to flight, as he would have looked upon it, now a bro

opened her eyes a