Help! Looking for a short story, forgot name

[dhla82]

Hi,

I remember a short story about a man (prisoner?) released on a planet where he's being chased by a machine trying to kill him with an injection. He runs into a dinosaur that fell victim to this machine. It's in a state of living death, paralyzed and unable to move. Eventually, the machine catches him, but is programmed to kill only creatures over a certain weight, and due to all his exertions to escape, he's lost enough weight to escape unharmed.

I'd really appreciate if anyone could tell me the name of this story, please. Thanks!

[Rocket Sheep]

OMG! I was talking to someone about this story the other day and that is the description they used!

It's an old one, last heard by this other person in the 70s. I had an idea it was a famous writer... was it John Wyndham writing under his real name of Harris or his other name of Parkes?

[dhla82]

Thanks for the info. I couldn't seem to find any connection between this story and the author, but I'l keep looking.

[dhla82]

This is an old post, but I did finally find what this story was, thanks to the fine folks at AbeBooks Book Sleuth!

[PeterWilliam]

That's very cool. Thanks for coming back with the info, dhla82.