The Zallu elders conferred among themselves for some time, and then their spokesman pointed to Janno.

We have decided what shall be your first task.

You will cross the desert of Zath, alone, unarmed, and on foot.

Janno’s aide hissed, desperately, in his chief’s ear.

This is madness, your Excellency. These animals are out to kill you—and they’ll succeed. The desert of Zath is crawling with savage predators, and it is also half—quicksand!

Silence, Colonel!

I accept!

By tomorrow’s suns, we shall be without our headstrong young master.

No one has attempted to cross the desert of Zath and lived to tell the tale.

The following dawn, Janno was taken to the edge of the forbidding tract of desert.

I will see you at the far side of the desert at sundown, Colonel.

I hope so, Excellency.























He set off in the searing heat of Elekton’s twin suns as they rose on high.

So far, so good . . .

And then . . .

Quicksand!

If I can reach that clump of scrub . . .

With the aid of the scrub, he pulled himself, slowly, painfully, from the cloying grip of the quicksand.

I can never hope to be so lucky again!

It was then that he saw . . . IT!

A horned Gora. Terror of the desert of Zath.

The brute walks quickly and sure-footed through the desert. Either it knows—or senses—the safe paths through the quicksands. What if I were to—follow it?

If it turns its head, I’m done for!

This instalment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 762 on 21 August 1976.