Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition) — page 97: what you’re looking at

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

THE SCAVENGERS 95 Spence was too angry to be frightened —yet. He’d expected to be clear of this stinking planet in another ten minutes. Now this. The five Crawlers must have been down the mine both times the ship had passed over. The projector lacked the power to penetrate two hundred feet of solid, ore-bearing rock, so the radiation hadn’t touched them. They were down there now, five alien snakes with beautiful, shimmering pelts, each of whose bodies measured two feet thick and eight feet wide. Their feelings towards the beings in the ship were probably indescrib- able, but they were certainly hostile. Spence’s voice shook a little as he related this latest development to the waiting fleet commander. When he finished he was sweating. It was all right while I was busy, he thought, there was no time to be afraid—not really afraid. But this sitting around while the clock ticked oif the seconds—He felt almost like asking if the commander had gone to sleep or something, it was taking him so long to answer. He tapped his foot rapidly, nervously against his seat support. When the voice came again he leaned forward anxiously. “That is bad, captain. Very bad,” it said gravely, “but whatever means you use to deal with it, remember that speed must be the first con- sideration. I will remain in this orbit for exactly fifty-three minutes. You have until then to clear things up.” The commander stopped, but he hadn’t quite finished. When he went on his tone was just a little warmer and more human. He said, “I’d better tell you that, if circumstances warrant it, I’ll have to leave before the expiration of the time-limit I’ve just given you. Also, we can’t send you any help as you are now the only ship remaining on the planet. When you’re through we can all go home. You are last man in, captain. Tl leave you to it. Luck. Off.” Spence had often wondered how it felt to be last man in from one of these clean-up jobs. Now that he knew, he wished that he didn’t. But he had only fifty minutes to get something done. He’d have to think, hard. But he couldn’t think of anything but the fact that far below him crawled the last living things native to this planet, and that his ship was all alone on its whole wide, poisonous surface. He almost felt like blasting off right now, but he had a duty. None of his thoughts showed on his face, they never did unless he wanted them to. His voice was even as he turned to the other two and asked, *“Has anyone an idea?” Harrison shook his head. Bennett said, “I’ve already acti- vated a couple of diggers. They’re on the way to the mine shaft now. They will be able to widen the tunnel enough to allow the grabs to get to the aliens. There aren’t any lifts to worry about—the main shaft is in the form of a descending spiral with branching tunnels leading off it at different levels. It’s very confusing—”’ He stopped talking to snap down a few switches on his panel. On a screen before him a monster of flash- ing and rotating blades mounted on caterpillar treads nosed over into a small hole in the ground. Soil flew skyward. When it had sunk from sight the hole was much bigger. Other machines hurried in and came out filled with loose earth, then went back for more. Two grabs stood aloofly by, waiting for them to finish. Bennett went on, a little apolo- getically, “This isn’t such a hot idea, it may take too much time. EComichooksico im