"Martians," said the queen. "What are they?"
"At present, they are just about the worst enemies of human beings," Dynamon replied tersely.
"No," said the queen, "our only enemies here are the land-krakens. We have been fighting them for hundreds of years and we have never been able to exterminate them, because they're so hard to kill."
"Land-krakens," said Dynamon. "What sort of creature are they?"
"They are great, crawling monsters," the queen told him. "They have a dozen long, flexible arms that curl around their victims and strangle them. They lie in wait for our cows and kill them easily, and now and then, they catch a human being. They're terribly hard to kill even with bullets—they seem to be made of gristle and jelly."
Just as the queen spoke, there was a chorus of shouts outside the cave, followed by three or four sharp reports, in rapid succession. The queen stood up quickly, as one of her subjects rushed into the cave.
"Land-kraken!" he shouted. "Ter'ble biggun!"
Without a word, the queen picked up her long skirts and ran to the entrance of the cave, Dynamon and Keltry following close behind. An extraordinary sight met their eyes.
At the fool of the little hill, fifty or sixty shouting men were ringed around a horrible mass of thrashing, gray tentacles. Several of the men were pointing their black rods at the beast.