Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 327: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ARC cannon had started the hummock burning and now it began to char under its own combustion, disappearing in smoke in cubic kilometers. Then the smoke volume was so great that not even the arc was visible tn it. A heavy blow against the tank knocked it loose. It was Knocked about with swift ferocity in the sea of angry “things” until a maw spread apart and dashed them in. They tumbled down a passage much larger than that of the “thing” which had taken them before and a bony Structure, visible to their floodlights, reacted upon three of the occupants of the tank like steel bars upon a prisoner. Finally, bruised and shaken, they came to rest, half sunk In mire. With a final sob of despair, Blufore hid his head in his hands and cried. Drummond looked steadily at Gedso. With a shrug, Stewie said, “Well, we sure gave them a hell of a time while we lasted. There’s enough air in the containers for maybe a day and after that—well, maybe he can digest armor plate.” Gedso sat down in the engineer’s seat and stretched out his legs. He took an apple out of his pocket, polished it upon his sleeve and took a soul-satisfying bite. “I wouldn’t worry too much,” he said, glancing at his watch. “We'll probably be out of here before that day is up.” “A lot of good that will do,” said Drummond. “We'll never get back.” Gedso finished his apple and then composed himself. In a little while he was asleep. Sometime later, at Gedso’s order, the tank moved slowly up the way it had come and, much to everyone’s—save Gedso’s—surprise, there was no resistance to their return through the maw which gaped stiffly and made no effort to close even when they churned out over the lower jaw. CORniclooo SS CO