A few seconds later only a scorched spot on the bark of the tree remained as a reminder of the danger that had threatened the three in the fork of the branches.
Rhodan chose another place to sit and kept watching. Incidents of this sort were rather rare at their height above the ground. There was no likelihood that their rest would be disturbed again during his watch.
He leaned back and returned to his thoughts. He contemplated different endeavor toward the foundation and furthering of a new colony on Venus-providing he came out of this venture alive.
The camp ground was primitive but n.o.body except Thora was bothered by it and even she was careful not to complain.
They lay quietly on the moist ground and dozed. Only Tomisenkov was still alert. He talked to Thora about the prospects of gaining access to the fortress through the defense barrier.
"The way I understand it," Tomisenkov began, "you"re hopeful that the positronic brain in the fortress will recognize your ident.i.ty and grant your admittance. Is this right?"
Thora nodded a little reluctantly. "Yes, but I can"t be absolutely sure," she answered. "As far as I can judge the situation, the positronic brain has a.s.sumed exclusive control of the base as a result of various menacing incidents. This means that the method of sending an agreed code signal with a special transmitter, by which a member of the New Power was authorized to enter the base, has been suspended. This is fortunate for us since we don"t have such a code transmitter and no means of building one.
"As a consequence, we"ll have to depend on the positronic brain identifying my brain-waves as those of an authorized person once we"ve reached the border of the protective screen."
She looked at Tomisenkov and he was surprised by the expression of helplessness in her eyes. "Unfortunately I don"t know whether the positronic brain will recognize me as an authorized person. If Perry Rhodan were with us, there could be no doubt of our success. But alone ..." She left the end of the sentence unspoken. Tomisenkov felt the urge to console her. But before he could think of something appropriate to say, his attention was suddenly completely diverted and concentrated on another matter.
Thora didn"t know what had happened. She had heard nothing.
"Alicharin!" Tomisenkov called.
"Yes, chief!" answered the little slant-eyed man.
"I heard it. It"s a tyrex." He said it indifferently, almost bored.
"It"s coming from east-north-east," Zelinskij added. And Breshnjew observed: "It seems to head straight for the swamp." Tomisenkov nodded. "Keep quiet, boys. Maybe it"ll pa.s.s us by."
The answering voices from the darkness agreed.
"What is it?" Thora asked excitedly. "A dinosaur?"
"Yes. Can"t you hear it?"
"If you mean the thump it makes every minute," she finally said, "then ..."
"It"s not a minute," Tomisenkov replied smilingly. "It"s between 30 and 40 seconds."
"And why do you call it a tyrex?"
"Because I"d be out of breath-perhaps eaten up if I stopped to call it by its proper paleolontological name every time: Tyrannosarus Rex . . . King of the great prehistoric reptiles and the only flesh-eater among the dinosaurs. It devours everything that comes its way as long as it"s an animal. It"ll even attack other saurians, sometimes larger than itself. Of course it can"t always consume them completely. It tears out the best pieces and leaves the rest to the ants."
Thora listened breathlessly. "And why does it walk so slowly?"
"Slowly?" Tomisenkov laughed loudly. "It moves at 12 miles an hour. It"s the only saurian walking upright most of the time. The forelegs are seldom used for anything other than holding its prey. It isn"t as big as the largest dinosaurs but it towers at least 30 feet above them as it walks erect. Its legs are almost 50 feet long. Figure out how many steps per minute it must take to maintain a velocity of 12 miles per hour. It"s no more than one and a half or two!"
Thora understood.
The thumping earth-shaking steps grew louder. Simultaneously the other sounds in the jungle swelled up with it. The animals were fleeing before the monster.
"Are we going to sit here till he tramples us into the ground?" Thora asked with apprehension.
"Where do you want us to go?" Tomisenkov countered her question.
Thora pointed uncertainly into the darkness. "There - away from here!"
"And how do you know it won"t pa.s.s where you want to hide? Can you decide which direction it"ll take?"
Thora shook her head in bafflement.
"Besides, you needn"t worry about being trampled," Tomisenkov continued.
"Why not?"
"A tyrex doesn"t trample what it can eat. And it"s got a d.a.m.n good nose to smell its prey. You can depend on that!"
He left Thora with this "consolation" and crawled over to Alicharin who had cleared a spot of ground of all plants and pressed his ear to it so he could listen better. "How"s it coming?" Tomisenkov asked.
Alicharin frowned. "Not very well. At best it"ll pa.s.s at a distance of 150 feet from us."
Tomisenkov became alarmed. "One hundred fifty feet is nothing," he growled. "It can smell us three times as far."
Alicharin nodded.
Tomisenkov turned around. "Take up your positions behind the trees, boys! And shoot straight!"
He saw Wla.s.sow standing at the side, not knowing what to do. "Don"t stand around!" Tomisenkov told him. "It"s a tyrex and it"s going to swallow you up when it gets you in its paws. Breshnjew will show you how to lie in wait for a tyrex. And remember one thing: if its head comes down to look at you, shoot it in the eye. It"s virtually the only spot where it"s vulnerable. Got it?"
"Yes," Wla.s.sow replied with a lump in his throat.
Alicharin remained at his listening post to the last minute. Tomisenkov had meanwhile picked a tree as cover and waved to Alicharin when he finished listening.
Alicharin slipped behind the cover and put his automatic pistol beside him. "It won"t pa.s.s more than 60 feet from us," he panted. "It"ll pick up our scent in three or four minutes."
Tomisenkov merely nodded. And then, between two of the mighty rumbling steps of the dinosaur he heard another noise. He was vexed and it took some time before he realized that his ears were not deceiving him.
In the excitement over the tyrex he had practically forgotten about Raskujan.
Tomisenkov started to laugh and Alicharin, who had also recognized the noise, joined in the laughter.
"Good grief ! " Tomisenkov gasped. "If they don"t watch out the tyrex is going to gulp them down, helicopter and all! "
It was a single machine with a regular two man crew, a lieutenant and a sergeant. The sergeant piloted the craft and the lieutenant acted as observer. Awhile ago the lieutenant had muttered: "I"d like to know how anyone can find people in this matted jungle."
And now he detected something in the oscillating beam of his infra-red searchlight that had nothing to do with the hunted men but nevertheless occupied his full attention: A st.u.r.dy powerful neck towering at least 30 feet above the roof of the jungle and topped by a huge, wide-mouthed head swaying slowly to and fro on the column of the neck.
He ordered the sergeant to pull the machine up at least 150 feet higher and to hover in the air. The sergeant had also noticed the dinosaur through his blind-flying instrument, an infra-red set mounted in the vehicle. He complied at once with the order and remained at a safe alt.i.tude, about 250 feet from the beast.