Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

aR ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION failed to notice the small movements of the crew, or regarded the tank as a more pressing problem. As Lackland moved toward one flank, it slewed its gigantic body around to keep facing it squarely. For a moment the Earthman thought of driving it into a full hundred and eighty degree turn, so that it would be facing directly away from the ship; then he remembered that this would put the Bree in his line of fire should he have to use the gun, and stopped the circling maneuver when the stranded sled was at the monster’s right. With that eye arrangement, it would be as likely to see the sailors moving behind it as in front, anyway, he reflected. Once more he moved toward the animal. It had settled down, belly to the ground, when he had stopped circling; now it rose once more to its many legs and drew its head back almost into its great trunk, in what was apparently a protective gesture. Lackland stopped once more, seized a camera, and took several photographs of the creature; then, since it seemed in no mood to press an attack, » he simply looked it over a minute or two. Its body was a trifle larger than that of an Earthly elephant; on Earth, it might have weighed eight or ten tons. The weight was distributed about evenly among the ten pairs of legs, which were short and enormously thick. Lackland doubted that the creature could move much faster than it had already. That fact would have cast some doubt upon the theory that it was a flesh eater, since it was hard to imagine how it could catch anything to eat; but the head left little question. It was some four feet long, and enough of the teeth protruded past the lips to show that it would have had a hard time chewing vegetables. One pair of tusks projected upward from the lower jaw for a distance of some eighteen inches, and gave some clue to their owner’s method of combat. Behind the long snout the head was almost globular; at first glance the creature might have been assumed to possess considerable brain capacity, but in fact the lower part of the head was occupied by the giant jaw muscles and the upper half by a crown of half a dozen eyes. None of these were actually in the back of the head, but they extended far enough around the sides to give their owner practically full-circle vision. The coloration, on top at least, was a mixture of irregular black and white stripes which blended rather well with the present land- scape, in which the ropy black vegetation extended everywhere through the snow which had not melted. After a minute or two of waiting, the creature began to grow restless; its head protruded a little and began to swing back and forth as though looking for other enemies. Lackland, fearing that its attention would become focused on the now helpless Bree and her crew, moved the tank forward another couple of feet; his adversary promptly resumed its de- fensive attitude. This was repeated several times, at intervals which grew pro- gressively shorter. The feinting lasted until the sun sank behind the hill to the west; as the sky grew dark Lackland, not knowing whether the beast would be will- ing or able to carry on a battle at night, modified the situation by turning on all the tank’s lights. This, at least, would presumably prevent the creature from seeing anything in the darkness beyond, even if it were willing to face what to it must be a new and strange situation. Quite plainly, it did not like the lights. It blinked several times as the main spot- light burned into its eyes, and Lackland could see the great pupils contract; then, with a wailing hiss that was picked up by the roof speaker and clearly trans- mitted to the man inside, it lumbered a few feet forward and struck. Lackland had not realized that he was so close—or, more correctly, that the thing could reach so far. The neck, even longer than he had at first estimated, snapped to full length, carrying the mas- sive head forward and a trifle to one side. As it reached full travel, the head tipped a trifle and came slashing sideways. One of the great tusks clanged resoundingly against the tank’s armor, and the main light. went out in the same _ instant. Another, shriller hiss suggested to Lack- land that the current feeding the light had grounded into the armor through some portion of the monster’s head; but EOmMmIichbooks.co