The shock of the discovery left him sick at his stomach.
He examined it gently with his finger tips. It was small, hard. He had the uncomfortable conviction that it was alive, feeding off of him like a leech.
He tugged at it, but it was firmly anchored, the flesh about it quite numb. In panic he tried to twist it off.
Instantly a blinding flash of pain seared through him like acid tingling out to the very tips of his fingers. He pitched forward, cracked his head on the bars of his cage, slid to a prone position.
For moments he lay there unable to lift a finger although his brain was clear, lucid. It was as if the thing had perceived his intention and had paralyzed the voluntary motor centers of his brain!
With mounting horror, Jones realized that the mollusk-like organism must be fastened directly to his spinal cord. He had best not meddle with it again until he learned more about it.
"Za'min—car?" he heard a voice say behind him.
He sat up, looked around, realized with a start that the paralysis was gone, leaving no appreciable ill effects.
There was a girl in the next cage watching him out of wide yellow eyes. She was one of the cave people, he recognized with a scowl of suspicion. It was impossible to mistake the air of wildness about her—like a caged leopard.