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Ghek had never seen an ulsio, since these great Martian rats had long ago
disappeared from Bantoom, their flesh and blood having been greatly relished by
the kaldanes; but Ghek had inherited, almost unimpaired, every memory of every
ancestor, and so he knew that ulsio inhabited these lairs and that ulsio was good
to eat, and he knew what ulsio looked like and what his habits were, though he
had never seen him nor any picture of him. As we breed animals for the
transmission of physical attributes, so the Kaldanes breed themselves for the
transmission of attributes of the mind, including memory and the power of
recollection, and thus have they raised what we term instinct, above the level of
the threshold of the objective mind where it may be commanded and utilized by
recollection. Doubtless in our own subjective minds lie many of the impressions
and experiences of our forebears. These may impinge upon our consciousness in
dreams only, or in vague, haunting suggestions that we have before experienced
some transient phase of our present existence. Ah, if we had but the power to
recall them! Before us would unfold the forgotten story of the lost eons that have
preceded us. We might even walk with God in the garden of His stars while man
was still but a budding idea within His mind.
Ghek descended into the burrow at a steep incline for some ten feet, when he
found himself in an elaborate and delightful network of burrows! The kaldane was
elated. This indeed was life! He moved rapidly and fearlessly and he went as
straight to his goal as you could to the kitchen of your own home. This goal lay at
a low level in a spheroidal cavity about the size of a large barrel. Here, in a nest of
torn bits of silk and fur lay six baby ulsios.
When the mother returned there were but five babies and a great spider-like
creature, which she immediately sprang to attack only to be met by powerful
chelae which seized and held her so that she could not move. Slowly they dragged
her throat toward a hideous mouth and in a little moment she was dead.
Ghek might have remained in the nest for a long time, since there was ample food
for many days; but he did not do so. Instead he explored the burrows. He followed
them into many subterranean chambers of the city of Manator, and upward
through walls to rooms above the ground. He found many ingeniously devised
traps, and he found poisoned food and other signs of the constant battle that the
inhabitants of Manator waged against these repulsive creatures that dwelt
beneath their homes and public buildings.
His exploration revealed not only the vast proportions of the network of runways
that apparently traversed every portion of the city, but the great antiquity of the
majority of them. Tons upon tons of dirt must have been removed, and for a long
time he wondered where it had been deposited, until in following downward a
tunnel of great size and length he sensed before him the thunderous rush of
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