He
used to tell me about the various forms of animal and vegetable life
which had covered the globe during former eras, and so I was pretty
well acquainted with the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals
of paleolithic times. I knew that the thing that had attacked me
was some sort of pterodactyl which should have been extinct millions
of years ago. It was all that I needed to realize that Bowen had
exaggerated nothing in his manuscript.
Having disposed of my first foe, I set myself once more to search
for a landing-place near to the base of the cliffs beyond which my
party awaited me. I knew how anxious they would be for word from
me, and I was equally anxious to relieve their minds and also to
get them and our supplies well within Caspak, so that we might set
off about our business of finding and rescuing Bowen Tyler; but the
pterodactyl's carcass had scarcely fallen before I was surrounded
by at least a dozen of the hideous things, some large, some small,
but all bent upon my destruction. I could not cope with them all,
and so I rose rapidly from among them to the cooler strata wherein
they dared not follow; and then I recalled that Bowen's narrative
distinctly indicated that the farther north one traveled in Caspak,
the fewer were the terrible reptiles which rendered human life
impossible at the southern end of the island.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35