Turning, Tom flashed his beam around the rocket’s interior. He was in a narrow passageway. Slowly he made his way along it, carefully examining the walls for symbols which might provide a clue.
Suddenly the inner wall became transparent, as if lit by some inner radiance.
Tom did not touch the wall, guessing that it became transparent when a current was passing through it. When not charged, it was opaque.
Tom gasped at the sight revealed beyond the wall. A huge zoo garden lay spread out before his eyes-a garden from the distant planet of his 170
MINIATURE MONSTERS 171
space friends. Some of the plant life was familiar to Tom from another rocket sent by his space friends. Using his diving seacopter, Tom had recovered the rocket from a crash landing in the ocean.
Here, as before, were curious plants glistening with a red metallic sheen and seeming to grow directly out of rocks. Some looked like honeycombed tulips or inverted mushrooms. Others bore flowers with long spikes, dripping an oily liquid.
“But those animals!” Tom gasped as he gazed at the animals in the fantastic “space zoo.” The creatures lay among the rocks, or moved about in slow, sickly fashion, scarcely turning their heads to look at Tom.
Though no larger than horses, they resembled the prehistoric monsters of earth’s dim past. Tom saw what looked like a miniature edition of a brontosaurus, with its clumsy body, long neck, and tiny head. Near it was an animal which looked like a glyptodon or ancient armadillo. A small tyrannosaur squatted on its hind legs, slowly opening and closing its bone-crusher jaws.
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