CHALLENGE ME WITH MONSTERS!

"From between the two shuffling dancers padded something on four feet. The canine-feline creature was more than just a head; it was a loose-limbed, graceful body fully eight feet in length, and the red eyes in the prick-eared head were those of a killer.... Words issued from between those curved fangs, words which Dane might not understand....

"Dane slid his blade out surreptitiously, setting its point against the palm of his hand and jabbing painfully; but the terrible creature continued to advance.... There was no blurring of its lines...."

Dane Thorson of the space-ship _Solar Queen_ knew there was only one way to win out over this hideous thing--a battle to the end between his rational mind and the hypnotic witchcraft of Lumbrilo, the mental wizard of the planet Khatka.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Dane Thorson

He wanted to spend a short vacation on Khatka, not the rest of his life.

Medic Tau

Was he physician or magician--or a little bit of both?

Chief Ranger Asaki

Tracking the forests had taught him that mad animals--whether real or imaginary--were to be feared.

Captain Jellico

Would his knowledge of alien life-forms help him in his fight against alien ghosts?

Nymani

Not even this pilot's most scientific skill could overcome a voodoo charm's ground-drag.

Lumbrilo

On his own planet he was a witch doctor; on Earth he'd have been a master politician.

I

Talk of heat--or better not--on Xecho. This water-logged world combined all the most unattractive features of a steam bath and one could only dream of coolness, greenness--more land than a stingy string of islands.

The young man on the promontory above the crash of the waves wore the winged cap of a spaceman with the insignia of a cargo-master and not much else, save a pair of very short shorts. He wiped one hand absently across his bare chest and brought it away damp as he studied, through protective sun goggles, the treacherous promise of the bright sea. One _could_ swim--if he wanted to lose most of his skin. There were minute organisms in that liquid that smacked their lips--if they had lips--every time they thought of a Terran.

Dane Thorson licked his own lips, tasting salt, and plodded back through the sand of the spaceport to the berth of the _Solar Queen_. This had been a long day, and one with more snarl-ups than he cared to count, keeping him on a constant, dogged trot between the ship and the fitting yard where riggers labored with the slowest motions possible to the human body--or so it seemed to the exasperated acting-Cargo-Master of the Free Trader. Captain Jellico had long ago taken refuge in his cabin to preserve the remnants of his temper. Dane had been allowed no such escape.

The _Queen_ had a schedule for refitting to serve as a mail ship, and that time allowance did not allow for humidity playing the devil with the innards of robot fitters. She _had_ to be ready to lift when the Combine ship now plying that run set down and formally signed off in her favor.