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They halted, and Jo looked round the inside of the main dome. They were in a large room that formed only part of the interior of the dome; corridors led off to other parts. Different from the exterior of the dome, with its futuristic sheets of gleaming moulded metal, the inside was more like a barn. There were plastic crates stored in one corner, and bits of agricultural machinery stacked in another. The floor was untidy with bits of mud and straw brought in on the boots of the people who came in and out of the building which was, in effect, the meeting-place of some community. And now, as they entered and stopped, a meeting was in progress. A big, white-haired man, clearly the leader, was listening to a man and woman who seemed very upset and worried. Standing about, listening, were other men and women. They all wore clothes similar to those of the man standing now behind Jo and the Doctor with his gun - simple farm workers' denims and heavy boots, with all the women and girls in long skirts.

'Now you listen to me, Ashe,' said the worried-looking man, 'I saw those creatures. Both me and my wife saw them, with our own eyes!'

The big man with white hair, called Ashe, tried to look calm. 'I surveyed this planet myself before the colony was set up. There was no trace of hostile animal life.'

Now the worried-looking woman spoke up. 'We heard this roaring in the middle of the night. When we looked out, there it was.'

One of the younger men present asked a question. 'What did it look like?'

'It was enormous; the woman said. 'Some kind of giant lizard.'

Ashe asked calmly, 'Did it do any damage?'

'Well, no,' the worried-looking man replied, 'I took a few shots at it and frightened it away.'

'You've been having nightmares!' the younger man retorted. 'Too much rich food!'

All the people grinned, but it wasn't a happy grin. Jo realised that the young man had made some joke that they all understood. Then she noticed how thin they all were, and how threadbare were their clothes. These people were all poor, just clinging on to an existence on this strange planet. The leader, Ashe, now noticed the Doctor and Jo and the man and woman who had brought them here.

'All right, Leeson,' said Ashe, 'what's your problem? More monsters?'

'I found these two in Sector 27,' said Leeson, still keeping his gun trained on Jo and the Doctor. 'They say they are explorers.'

'I'll deal with them in a moment,' said Ashe. He turned back to the worried-looking man and woman who had been talking about monsters. 'Why don't you two go and have something to cat, and a rest? You must be tired after walking all the way here.'

'We've got to find the creature and kill it,' the man said. He turned to the younger man, the one who had made the joke. 'Winton, you're in charge of the guards. It's your job to go and kill this thing, not to make jokes. It's bad enough trying to scratch a living on this planet without being pestered by giant lizards in the middle of the night!'

An older woman stepped forward to the couple who had seen the monster. 'You could both do with something to eat. Come along with me.'

'All right,' said the man, 'for my wife's sake. But we've got to do something. The crops won't grow, and the Primitives aren't all that friendly. If we've also got to fight off monsters, my vote is that we all go back to where we came from!'

The man's wife tugged at his sleeve, and reluctantly he went with her down one of the corridors. Ashe turned to the young man, Winton 'How many men can you raise?'

'Here at the main dome,' Winton said, 'maybe half-a-dozen. The rest are on outpost guard.'

'Half-a-dozen will have to do,' said Ashe. 'Put a guard on the Martins' dome, just in case.'

'Right,' said Winton, and hurried away.

Ashe came over to the Doctor and Jo and the man called Leeson. 'Where do you two come from?'

'Earth,' said the Doctor. 'You seen to have problems here.'

'I caught them examining rock samples,' said Leeson. 'They're mineralogists. It was bound to happen. I said from the start they'd never leave us in peace.

Jo was confused