Free The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber Page B

long-legged trapezoids of two of the Baba Yagas.
    A second horizontal moonquake threw him on his face. He got his forearms raised in time to catch the impact. This ground-parallel temblor was protracted. There were a half dozen sideways surges. Plato's gray dust-lake rippled to the horizon. Dust spray rose and fell. The stuff really did behave more like water (on Earth) than like dust. Rock knobs thrusting up through it made dust wakes. Dust squirts peppered Don's helmet.
    A vertical component added itself to the horizontal quake. The roar dazed him.
    Don's suit shook like an empty tin can in a paint-mixer.
    He gave up waiting and began to crawl toward the ships like a dust-drenched silver beetle. He wished he had a beetle's two extra legs.
     
    The saucer students were sorting themselves out as they headed for their cars, which showed up colorfully at the base of the brown cliffs. The general effect of the Wanderer's light, mixing complementary yellow and violet, was yellowish white, except where mirror surfaces such as water reflected the entire orb, or in the edges of shadows where one color was cut off.
    Hunter said to Paul, a shade enviously, "I suppose you Moon Project people already have this thing a lot more thoroughly comprehended than we do. More data, for one thing. Satellite 'scopes, radar, all the rest."
    "I'm not so sure of that, Ross," Paul replied. "On the Project you develop a kind of tunnel vision."
    The Little Man came back toward them with Ragnarok on short leash and his clipboard in the other hand.
    "Remember me?—I'm Clarence Dodd. Mayn't I have your signature now, Miss Gelhorn?" he said winningly, holding out the clipboard to Margo. "Tomorrow a lot of people are going to be saying: 'Why didn't we sign it?' But then it'll be too late."
    Margo, struggling to contain Miaow, snarled: "Oh, get away, you idiot!"
    "I'll sign it for you, Doddsy," Doc called cheerfully. "Only, come on over here and quit trying to provoke felino-doggy war."
    Ann giggled. "I like Mr. Brecht, Mommy." The red-haired woman in evening clothes smiled down at her faintly.
    "That's what I like to hear," Doc called. "Keep on propagandizing your mother."
    Paul took Margo's elbow to guide her to his car, but then something made him stop and look up at the Wanderer. The purple-bordered yellow figure had rotated completely into view now and stood out sharply, thick at the base, thinner and sharply bent at the top. It teased Paul's imagination.
     
    AFTER ONE HOUR
     
    Clarence Dodd—or the Little Man, as Paul still called him in his mind—gave Ragnarok's leash to Doc and made another quick simplified sketch, using crisscross lines to show the purple. He labeled it "After One Hour."
    One of the cars, a red sedan, backed and took off, far ahead of any of the others.
    From ahead the thin woman called: "Please help us, someone. I think Wanda's having a heart attack."
    Ragnarok whimpered. Miaow hissed.
    Suddenly Paul realized what the yellow figure reminded him of: a dinosaur. A long-jawed dinosaur rearing on its great thick hind legs. His skin prickled. Then he was trembling and there was a faint low roaring in his body.
    When Paul was a little boy, he had liked to stand on the middle of the porch swing, a cushioned, solid seat for three hanging from the ceiling by chains at the four corners. It had seemed at the time a daring feat of equilibrium. Now, all at once, he was standing on that swing again, for the ground under his feet moved, gently but solidly with a ponderous muffled thud, a few inches back, a few inches forward, and then back again, and he was swaying his body to keep balanced, just as he'd used to do on the swing.
    Over inarticulate exclamations and calls, Hunter shouted with strident anxiety:
    "Come away from the cars!"
    Margo clung to Paul. Miaow, squeezed between them, squeaked.
    People were whirling and running. The brown cliff appeared to swell; cracks opened in it all over; and then it sank, slowly, it looked, but with