"Stop that!" said Travis. "Don't even aim for fun, blast you! If your guns should go off "
Eckels flushed. "Where's our Tyrannosaurus?"
Lesperance checked his wristwatch. "Up ahead, We'll bisect his trail in sixty seconds. Look for
the red paint! Don't shoot till we give the word. Stay on the Path. Stay on the Path!"
They moved forward in the wind of morning.
"Strange," murmured Eckels. "Up ahead, sixty million years, Election Day over. Keith made
President. Everyone celebrating. And here we are, a million years lost, and they don't exist. The
things we worried about for months, a lifetime, not even born or thought of yet."
"Safety catches off, everyone!" ordered Travis. "You, first shot, Eckels. Second, Billings, Third, Kramer."
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And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all expression save
hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes,
its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight.
It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit
area warily, its beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air.
"Why, why," Eckels twitched his mouth. "It could reach up and grab the moon."
"Sh!" Travis jerked angrily. "He hasn't seen us yet."
"It can't be killed," Eckels pronounced this verdict quietly, as if there could be no argument. He
had weighed the evidence and this was his considered opinion. The rifle in his hands seemed a
cap gun. "We were fools to come. This is impossible."
"Shut up!" hissed Travis.
"Nightmare."
"Turn around," commanded Travis. "Walk quietly to the Machine. We'll remit half your fee."
"I didn't realize it would be this big," said Eckels. "I miscalculated, that's all. And now I want
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Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. The coins,
crusted with slime, steamed. In the slime, tiny insects wriggled, so that the entire body seemed to
twitch and undulate, even while the monster itself did not move. It exhaled. The stink of raw flesh
blew down the wilderness.
"Get me out of here," said Eckels. "It was never like this before. I was always sure I'd come
through alive. I had good guides, good safaris, and safety. This time, I figured wrong. I've met my
match and admit it. This is too much for me to get hold of."
"Don't run," said Lesperance. "Turn around. Hide in the Machine."
"Yes." Eckels seemed to be numb. He looked at his feet as if trying to make them move. He gave
a grunt of helplessness.
"Eckels!"
He took a few steps, blinking, shuffling.
"Not that way!"
The Monster, at the first motion, lunged forward with a terrible scream. It covered one hundred
yards in six seconds. The rifles jerked up and blazed fire. A windstorm from the beast's mouth
engulfed them in the stench of slime and old blood. The Monster roared, teeth glittering with sun.
The rifles cracked again, their sound was lost in shriek and lizard thunder. The great level of