"It stopped, too," the lieutenant stated. "But it shows no interest in us. It seems to have discovered something else!"

Tomisenkov looked for Thora. She was also hidden behind a tree and held one of the spare automatic pistols in her hand. Tomisenkov could see her white-blond hair shine in the darkness. "Just stay still!" he called to her. "We can handle it ourselves."

Thora replied mockingly: "Don't worry about me! I only want to find out how much your old-fashioned shooting irons are worth."

With an admiring growl Tomisenkov turned around again. At this moment the crashing and rumbling noises the dinosaur created on his march through the jungle ceased. Tomisenkov whistled through his teeth.

"It's got wind of us!" Alicharin declared.

Tomisenkov raised himself up on his arms and called into the night: "It's found us, boys! It won't be long now!" Halfsubconsciously it registered that the helicopter had also stopped moving. It hovered above the crowns of the trees and seemed to watch the dinosaur.

Wla.s.sow felt scared. He didn't like to wait in the darkness for the aggressive behemoth, not even knowing what it looked like. Wla.s.sow lay behind a huge tree as Breshnjew had advised him but Breshnjew himself was lying so far away that Wla.s.sow couldn't even see him. He heard Tomisenkov's shouted warning and gripped his weapon tighter. In addition to the bullet clip in his gun he kept 10 more clips on the ground beside him within reach.

Then the scene suddenly started to move. Wla.s.sow heard a strong whizzing sound, then a din of crashing trees as if the dinosaur had started to push forward again. Instinctively Wla.s.sow waited for the thump of the next step.

But it failed to come. It was almost too late when he realized that the dinosaur had merely moved its neck. He heard the breaking of the branches and saw a huge shadow close above him. From one breath to the next the air was pervaded with a beastly stench. Wla.s.sow heard quick furious hissing as the dinosaur exhaled -and then-the tremendous head emerged from the darkness.

For a second Wla.s.sow's blood froze in his veins. Not in his wildest dreams had he ever before seen such an ugly and ferocious sight. He saw a mouth with two double rows of sharp teeth lunging toward him, a paw so big that he could have stood up in it. Somewhere from left and right the swift grabbing forelegs slashed through the brush. Finally his terrified gaze was caught by the round iridescent eyes of the monster staring intently at him from a distance of 10 feet.

Suddenly Wla.s.sow remembered the advice Tomisenkov and Breshnjew had given him. He jerked up his automatic pistol, aimed carefully at the left eye and fired.

A salvo of small explosive bullets. .h.i.t the target. The horrible face of the dinosaur disappeared at once and a second later such a stupendous ear-splitting roar came from up above that Wla.s.sow dropped his gun and pressed his hands against his ears.

"Now!" the lieutenant yelled excitedly. "Now it's seizing its prey! "

He watched through the infra-red filter how the colossal animal lowered its neck and dropped its head down into the foliage. For a moment he saw only the scaly base of its neck. Then the head jerked up again with wide open jaws. And what a head it was!

At the place where the left eye had been gaped a deep jagged hole from which blood was spurting in streams. At first the lieutenant couldn't understand what animal was able to inflict such a terrible wound on the huge beast. He waited wide-eyed for a few moments for a second dinosaur to pop up from the darkness and continue mangling the first one.

But this failed to materialize. The savage wounded creature kept howling; turned at last to the side and staggered away.

And then it suddenly dawned on the lieutenant. A well-placed volley of explosive bullets such as used in automatic pistols was capable of inflicting the hideous wound.

He barked his orders so sharply and unexpectedly that he startled the sergeant: "Down lower! Search the terrain where the dinosaur stopped! "

The sergeant obeyed. He dived down steeply and skimmed over the treetops. The enormous bulk of the dinosaur had broken a wide path through the jungle and the lieutenant directed his searchlight toward the spot where it veered sharply from its initial direction. The pilot held the machine steady and the lieutenant in his eagerness didn't realize the risk he was taking.

Tomisenkov was aware of the possible dangers that could evolve from the situation. Although he didn't know what had alerted the helicopter he had no doubts that it was chasing the fugitives. He shouted from his hiding place: "n.o.body move till the 'copter leaves!"

But his shout didn't reach Wla.s.sow's ears above the blasting jets and Wla.s.sow probably wouldn't have paid any attention anyway: He was in the throes of an indescribable mood - a psychotic mixture of victorious frenzy and the aftereffect of the horrible fright he had endured. With a wide leap he jumped into the path torn by the dinosaur, pointed his pistol at the clearly recognizable shadow of the helicopter and pulled the trigger. His salvo hit the plexigla.s.s c.o.c.kpit of the machine squarely.

The sergeant was killed instantly and the lieutenant, so far unhurt, realized at once what happened. Without trying to take over the controls of the aircraft, which retained its alt.i.tude for a few seconds, he grabbed the microphone of the still-operative radio and shouted his report. He was still talking when the machine toppled over and plummeted like a rock into the middle of the dinosaur's trail, bursting with a thunderous clap.

The radio station at Raskujan's post received the report: "Located fugitives! About two miles northeast of camp . . ." Then nothing but a weak tapping - the faint by-product of the thunderous explosion reaching the radio officer over the waves.

The officer was an experienced radio man. He could deduce the meaning of the sudden interruption of the agonized screaming. No doubt Colonel Raskujan would attach the greatest importance to the message.

He contacted the command center of the flagship and advised Colonel Raskujan of the call he had received.

Chapter Four.

MENACE OF THE ANTS.

Wla.s.sow seemed to be protected by a benign fate. Leaping like a panther, he had thrown himself down far enough away and just in time to escape the dreadful force of the fiery detonation. He landed in a stinking bush with moist twigs which immediately began to wind themselves around his body. The shockwave that followed freed him of the unwanted embrace and carried him a few feet farther without inflicting other damage than some scratches on his face and hands.

The forest had suddenly fallen quiet after the furious events of the past minutes.

Wla.s.sow could hear the blood coursing in his ears before Tomisenkov's irate voice reached him: "Who's the fool who shot at the helicopter?"

Wla.s.sow raised himself up and tested his limbs. "I did!" he exclaimed. Then he started to walk back. Somebody had turned on a half-concealed flashlight to light up the ground. It was Tomisenkov. Alicharin and Zelinskij stood beside him. Breshnjew and Thora appeared from the undergrowth.

"Didn't you hear me order everybody to freeze?" Tomisenkov growled.

"No," Wla.s.sow replied truthfully and puzzled.

"What were you thinking of when you shot at the helicopter?"

The question was even more baffling for Wla.s.sow.

"Well," he answered hesitantly, "I thought the same as any other machine gunner would, shooting at a hostile aircraft. I can't find anything wrong . . ."

Tomisenkov didn't let him finish. "So you can't find anything wrong with it!" he shouted angrily. "Don't you know the men in that machine could send a call back before they were knocked out?"

"In such a short time... !" Wla.s.sow was skeptical.

"In such a short time!" Tomisenkov mocked. "And suppose they made no report, Raskujan will miss them no later than in half an hour and send another chopper to look for them. It's only a matter of minutes to find this ma.s.s of metal by radar. Everything we've done so far has been ruined. Raskujan won't have to pick up our track at the camp to follow us, he can start right here."

Wla.s.sow stood with drooping shoulders. A few moments ago he had considered himself the hero of the day, now he felt a dumb clod: disgraced.

"I can see it now," he mumbled dejectedly. "What can I do about it?"

"There's nothing you can do now! You'll have to get moving in double time just like the rest of us."

Tomisenkov turned around and looked at Thora and Breshnjew. "If Raskujan didn't know where we're heading, he knows it now. We can't go on marching northeast. We'll have to proceed to the southeast and try to mislead his helicopters. This means a detour and it's a great nuisance for us but we've got no other choice. Let's go! "

In great haste they scurried eastward along the swath cut by the wounded dinosaur that had meanwhile disappeared in the depth of the jungle. They used a small gap in the thicket to penetrate once more into the dark forest.

Tomisenkov a.s.sumed again, as he had the first time, that Raskujan's men would begin to look for the escaped prisoners in the broad trampled down lane. With luck their maneuver could help them avoid the pursuing helicopters.

A few minutes past 213:00 o'clock Perry Rhodan and his companions reached the edge of a swamp stretching - much to their discomfort - as far as the eye could see to left and right.

Rhodan had learned enough from his experience with Venusian swamps that he didn't even consider for a moment walking around the treacherous terrain. He asked Son to investigate the trees in the swamp and decided they were satisfactory.

"We'll swing through the trees over the swamp," Rhodan told them. "Son, you take the lead! Marshall, keep your eyes open. One wrong step or missed grip and you'll have had it."