Page:Weird Tales v15n01 1930-01.djvu/58

ful, terrorized wreck of that bearded ruffian, straining and struggling desperately against more of those odd ropes. Rayed from a common center these were, like the spokes of a wheel, and fastened tightly to the rocks at waist height, while across them in concentric circles that began at that common center was another.

As Sikhandar Khan saw them in the lightening dawn he stretched an imploring arm to them and struggled anew while the network of ropes shook under the fury of his struggles.

Gingerly Billy felt of the nearest strand of that odd net before he set his weight upon it. His hand stuck tenaciously to its glistening, viscous surface. So that was how Sikhandar Khan was being held, was it? And in his every struggle, whenever he touched it anew, that net but clung the tighter to the new hold.

What the devil was it, anyway? And whose the hand that had stretched it there? Billy dropped on all fours to crawl along under it after shouting to the frenzied man to cease struggling; but it was doubtful if that fear-maddened one even heard him.

Billy had no desire to have that sticky thing catch him helplessly by the back. He jammed his automatic into his pocket and brought out his knife, intending to cut the man free; then he crawled carefully inward, glancing ever and anon at the brightening sky. The false dawn was done; the day had come.

Again came Sikhandar's frenzied thrashing, though he was now almost helplessly fastened to that dreadful net. Billy lay flat on the stony ground while those viscous ropes vibrated dangerously close to his body. As the struggles ceased he crawled on again toward that helpless unfortunate. The first rays of the newly risen sun shone upon him and turned that net to gold, gilding that colorful human fly in this gigantic spiderweb.

That was what the damnable thing reminded him of: a monster spiderweb—admitting for the moment that such a thing could be. Billy had seen spiders in his travels that snared and killed small birds—with their webs a few feet across. Horrid, saucer-shaped things those spiders were, whose bite was poisonous, producing sickness that lasted for days, that might even cause death if not cared for; but this—no, this was something entirely beyond his knowledge. He was under Sikhandar Khan now, and he rolled over on his back.

"Be still, dog," he ordered as he raised his knife. At the sound of his voice Sikhandar Khan thrashed more wildly than ever and his hoarse voice called upon all the gods of Hind for succor.

"Be still, bût-parast (idol-worshiper)," growled Billy in disgust.

"Ohé Billee Sahib, beware! The djinn! Behold, it comes!" screamed Chota Lal in accents of such terror that Billy's upraised arm dropped paralyzed. The net above him vibrated with a curious trembling motion. Billy screwed his head around and lay stupefied with horror. Shades of all the Sons of Eblis! By the Thousand and One Shaitans of the deeper and nethermost Hells! What was this terrible monster? Was it in very truth one of those devils that the Hillmen swore inhabited these wilds?

Huge, leggy, bristly, it flashed toward them. Its legs covered a fifteen-foot circle; its body was a globular bag, gleaming iridescently with blues and greens and blacks, mottled with vivid red splotches the size of a man's head. In a sort of spiny plate on its front were set six gleaming black eyes that glinted redly in the golden haze. The plate and bag were borne on those huge spiky legs four feet or more above the net.

It flashed onto the helpless man above him swifter than the eye could follow and paused there an instant while a lancet-like arm flashed into Sikhandar Khan's upturned stomach.

Sikhandar Khan gave a convulsive