Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930

And this thing began to flow along the rods, much as tar flows. From the mass extended a pseudopod; touched Gunga on the arm. Instantly the arm was raw and bleeding. Terrified, immovable, he writhed in agony. The pseudopod returned to the main mass, disappearing into its interior with the strip of bloody skin. Its attention was centered so much on the luckless Martian that its control slipped from Forepaugh. Seizing his flash pistol, he set the localized for a small area and aimed it at the thing, intent on burning it into nothingness. But again his hand was stayed. Against the utmost of his will-power his fingers opened, letting the pistol drop. The liquid in the cyst danced and bubbled. Was it laughing at him? It had read his mind--thwarted his will again. Again a pseudopod stretched out and a strip of raw, red flesh adhered to it and was consumed. Mad rage convulsed the Earth man. Should he throw himself tooth and nail on the monster? And be engulfed? He thought of the six-shooter. It thrilled him. But wouldn't it make him drop that too? A flash of atavistic cunning came to him. He began to reiterate in his mind a certain thought. "This thing is so I can see you better--this thing is so I can see you better." He said it over and over, with all the passion and devotion of a celibate's prayer over a uranium fountain. "This thing is harmless--but it will make me see you better!"