"Rog Tanlu ... Rog Tanlu ... Rog Tan-lu...."
Then I saw something move, there in the shadows, and goose-pimples sprang out on me. For as the light glinted on that thing, I saw it wasn't human.
"Eyoaoc Eiioiei!" cried Rog Tanlu. "He's come through—he has followed me!"
"Eyoaoc Eiioiei!" cried Rog Tanlu, "He's come through. He has followed me!"
Did you ever see a dog frisk around someone he likes, someone he's been separated from for a long time? Then picture the dog as no dog at all, but a madhouse thing prancing on two jointed-metal legs, as thick as stovepipes, its eyes glinting ruby-red when they catch the light—
But the part that made cold shivers run up my back was the thing's head—a round globe from which those ruby eyes sparkled. That head wasn't attached in any visible manner to its short, squat body, but seemed to float, six inches above its shoulders, as if poised there by some magnetic force.
All the while the thing was capering around Rog Tanlu, it was jabbering at him in some outlandish tongue, and he was jabbering back at it.