All of the darkness moved without haste, with a sort of inexorable
deliberation. It moved toward the ship and the valley and the gushing
fountain and the stream which flowed from it.
"What on Earth--" began Cochrane.
"You're not on Earth," said Jones chidingly. "Al and I found 'em. You
asked for buffalo or a reasonable facsimile. I won't guarantee anything;
but we spotted what looked like herds of beasts moving over the green
plains inland. We checked, and they seemed to be moving in this
direction. Once we dropped down low and Bell got some pictures. When he
enlarged them, we decided they'd do. So we lined up where they were all
headed for, and here we are. And here they are!"
Cochrane stared with all his eyes. Behind him, he heard Bell fuming to
himself as he tried to adjust a camera for close-up pictures in the
little remaining light. Babs stood beside Cochrane, staring
incredulously.
The darkness was beasts. They blackened the hillsides on three sides of
the ship. They came deliberately, leisurely onward. They were literally
uncountable. They were as numerous as the buffalo that formerly thronged
the western plains of America.
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