“RALSTON, STAND STILL!” Blair shouted. “Your only chance—stand still!”
I checked my advance and tried to get my wits; to master the frenzy that was upon me. It was a moment of horrible chaos; I knew that my life or death in that second hung in the balance. With hands at my sides I stood irresolute as the weird little creatures spread out and surrounded me. Little creatures? Still my brain would barely encompass the amazing fact that these were not individual little beings but merely the detached parts of one great Individual—one almost Omniscient Mentality. As though they were just arms and legs with a remote giant central Being to guide them in what they were doing now.
As I stood panting, waiting, with my heart pounding, for an instant it seemed that I would be seized, with the tentacl
