Robert Silverberg - Planet of Death

At once the thick vine wrapped itself around Lazenby again.

Lazenby grunted in pain. Crawford muttered some angry words. The longer he stood there wrestling with this tree-rope, the more chance there was that some hungry beast would come along and surprise them. Or that another tree would reach out an “arm” the way the first one had.

Gritting his teeth, Crawford grabbed the upper end of the rope and pulled. Hard. He yanked with all his strength and tugged it free. Lazenby went spinning like a top as the sturdy vine came off.

Crawford tossed it far to one side. Even then, it continued to coil and twist like a snake.

Lazenby rubbed his stomach. “I’m going to be sore for a week!”

“You’re lucky to get out of it with nothing more than some bruised ribs, friend. You almost got eaten!”

“Is that what was happening?”

Crawford pointed toward the tree. It looked perfectly harmless now. It wasn’t moving at all. “You see up there, in the branches on top? I saw a mouth open in there. Another minute and you would have been shoved inside.”

“Eaten by a tree!” Lazenby shuddered. “What a place this is!”

They looked at the tree. It was hard to believe that it could attack a man. Right now it looked just like any other tree.

But that was a trap, Crawford knew. The tree remained still until it saw a chance to get a meal. Then one of those vines went into action, grabbing something tasty and pulling it up toward the waiting mouth.

A nasty business, Crawford thought. And there was no telling when any of these other trees might suddenly reach out and grab them. Those trees looked harmless too.

Crawford stared at the ground beneath his feet.

He half expected it to open fanged jaws and gulp him down.

“Come on,” he said to Lazenby. “Let’s go back to the ship. I think we’ve done enough exploring for now.”

Getting back to the ship seemed to take almost forever. Crawford was worried about those trees. He and Lazenby kept their blast-guns drawn.

A couple of times it seemed as if a tree was about to strike. Branches began to move. Was it the breeze, or was it going to be an attack?

Luck was with them. They reached the edge of the jungle unharmed. The ship was just a hundred yards away, in the middle of the clearing.

“We made it!” Lazenby said.

“Not so fast,” said Crawford. “We’re not in the ship yet. Keep your eyes open.”

They stepped into the clearing. The thick purplish grass rose high around their boots. Moving quickly, they walked toward the safety of the ship.

Suddenly an animal came rushing through the grass toward them. It was about the size of a dog, but no dog ever looked like this. The animal had six legs and a huge, toothy mouth.

Here we go again, thought Crawford.

Lazenby said, “Don’t shoot it! Maybe it isn’t after us!”

“Look at those teeth! If it comes any closer, I’ll have to shoot!”

It was only twenty yards away now. In another moment it would be upon them.

Lazenby pointed to the sky.

“What’s that?” he yelled.

Crawford looked up just in time. He saw a heavy shape diving out of the sky. It was some kind of bird, as big as a vulture. Its wings were folded and it was letting itself drop right to the ground.

The bird had a beak more than a foot long. The sharp beak looked like a deadly sword.

Crawford watched as the bird dropped straight down, beak first. The long pointed beak speared into the back of the dog-like animal. There was a loud yelping sound as the animal fell over. “Will you look at that?” Crawford whispered. “It went right through!”

It was the second time that Crawford had been rescued by one animal attacking another. The doglike beast was badly wounded. The dive-bombing bird had drilled a hole deep into its body. Now the bird was on the ground next to the dying animal. Crawford saw leathery wings fluttering as the bird got into position for its feast.

Then the long beak opened. Bright jagged teeth were inside.

“Amazing!” Lazenby said softly. “On this planet even the birds have teeth!”

Crawford didn’t feel like staying around to see the killer-bird have its meal. He jerked Lazenby by the elbow.

“Let’s not wait around for the next surprise,” Crawford said. “There’s the ship!”

They hurried through the grass. This time, they got into the ship without any further excitement.

Once the door was locked, Crawford let out his breath in relief. Safe! Safe aboard the ship!

He had been in dangerous places before. But never one like this. Never a place where death might come from any direction, where it might drop from the skies or reach from a tree.

They rode the elevator up to the top compartment. Captain Hendrin was there. He was dictating the ship’s log, and hadn’t yet gone out to explore.

“What’s the trouble?” the Captain demanded. “Why are you two back so fast? What happened?”

“We ran into some trouble, sir.” Quickly Crawford told him what had taken place in the jungle.

Hendrin looked surprised. “Man-eating trees?” he said. “Well, well, well! We’ll have to send Grover out to take a look at them.” Grover was the ship’s botanist. Any kind of strange tree belonged in his department. The Captain went on, “Did you take any pictures when the tree attacked, Markham?”

Crawford shook his head. “I was a lot too busy getting Lazenby out of that tree, sir. Another minute and he would have been eaten up. I didn’t have time to think about taking pictures.”

The Captain was displeased. “It was important to save Lazenby, of course. But you should have taken some pictures too. That tree’s important to science.”

“The next time I see one, sir, I’ll snap its picture,” Crawford promised. He felt like laughing. How could the Captain really expect him to take pictures at a time like that? But Captain Hendrin seemed to take everything so very seriously. The work of the Exploration Corps was like a religion to him.

Captain Hendrin said, “I hope you and Lazenby aren’t planning to take the rest of the day off, now. There’s plenty to be done.”

“We’re a little shaken up, sir,” Lazenby said mildly. He rubbed his middle where the tree’s “arm” had bruised it. “If we could have some time to rest before we go out there again—”

“All right,” Hendrin said. He didn’t sound happy about it. “Take half an hour off. But don’t waste any more time than that. We have a schedule to follow. I mean to stick to it.”

He opened his log book and began to write again. Lazenby turned away and walked into the ship’s library. Crawford followed him. The library was a quiet place where they could rest a while.

Crawford pointed over his shoulder in the direction of Captain Hendrin. “He’s really tough, isn’t he?” he said to Lazenby. “The Captain means business!”

Lazenby agreed. “Of course he’s tough. It’s the right way to run an Exploration Corps ship. You get the job done, that way.”

They sat down. The color began to come back into Lazenby’s face. That had been a narrow escape in the jungle, but he seemed to be recovering fast. Lazenby had been on many of these expeditions. He was prepared for any kind of trouble. To him, it was just something that might happen in the course of everyday work.

When he had rested for a while, Lazenby swung around and looked straight at Crawford. The little biologist said, “There was something I was meaning to ask you before that tree got me.”

“Sure. What?”

Lazenby stared into Crawford’s eyes for a long moment before he spoke. Finally he said, “Who are you, Markham? Really, I mean.”