“Glad to know you,” Tom said, shaking hands with the engineer in charge.
He introduced his own men and added, “Better roll up your sleeves. This job is going to take plenty of oomph!”
The parts of the Quakelizor were unloaded
THE CAVE MONSTER 79
from the Sky Queen onto dollies. Then the group, armed with bull’s-eye lanterns, flashlights, and walkie-talkies, hauled the parts by tractor into the cave.
“Okay. Now let’s pick out the spot for embedding the unit,” Tom said.
The men had no sooner begun to look around the huge underground chamber when a fearsome growl rumbled through the cave. Everyone whirled about and the next instant froze in horror.
A huge bear reared up in the mouth of the cave! The monster snarled and blinked its yellow eyes in the glare of lights.
“We’re trapped!” Hank cried out.
The enormous bruin was now waving his huge head from side to side, as if daring the intruders to step up and fight.
Several of the government men had brought rifles and shotguns. But in spite of their peril, no one wanted to shoot the handsome old fellow.
“I’ll send out an SOS,” Tom said. “If help arrives before the bear attacks, we won’t use guns.”
He radioed the local Forest Ranger post. After a nerve-racking wait, with the group expecting a charge from the beast at any minute, two rangers appeared and captured the bear with a net. One man of the government work crew knocked together a stout wooden cage. The beast, outraged, 80 THE VISITOR FROM PLANET X
was loaded aboard the heliplane to be released in an area remote from the cave.