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The great reptile he had just seen was a "thunder lizard," or brontosaurus.
Re
Re
So Re
Quitting the trail opened by the armor-plated monster which had brought him here, Re
"Whew!" He mopped his forehead with both sleeves. "Whew!"
He felt his way onward, machine gun ready in one hand. So dark had become the night that he could not even see the weapon he held. He halted often to listen to the awful uproar of the night.
Once a nocturnal fray broke out near by, and the course of the battle brought it directly for Re
Re
"What a place to have to live in!" he muttered.
It was only a moment later that fresh disaster overtook him.
Came a great fluttering sound from above his head! It was as if some one were shaking a large carpet up there.
"What the — " Then Re
Wildly, Re
But before he could pull the trigger, the gruesome marauder was upon him!
RENNY now got one of the few pleasant surprises of the night. He realized this aлrial, batlike thing was much smaller than the one which had assailed the plane. Probably it was a chick of the species!
Evading the snapping, toothed beak, Re
The beak crunched. It took off the entire back of Re
Grasping again, Re
But the thing did not die immediately! It whipped about, as tenacious of life as the tail of a snake. But Re
"What a place this is!" Re
He lifted the expiring pterodactyl. Its lightness was astounding.
"Bones hollow and filled with air!" decided Re
He tossed the flying reptile away, took a step sidewise — and froze in horror!
Another specimen of monster dinosaur was approaching. The struggles of the dying air monster were attracting it!
Re
He heard the heavy steps of the approaching giant. They sank noisily into the spongy earth, so vast was the weight upon them. At the dying pterodactyl, the steps stopped.
A ghastly crunching of flesh and popping of chewed bones indicated the flying reptile was being devoured.
Re
The beast charged!
The rapidity with which it came showed Re
Re
Whirling the coat around his head speeded the fire. In an instant it was a sizable brand.
He flung it in the face of the charging monster!
AS the flaming cloth gyrated through the air, Re
It had a lizardlike body, armored with great bony plates. It traveled on all fours. Its head was uncouth as that of a mud turtle, but more than a yard in length. The low-slung carcass of the creature, although thin from side to side, was very high.
Most striking of its characteristics was the double row of huge, horny plates standing on edge down its back. These looked like two lines of monster saw teeth.
The name of the thing — stegosaur — escaped Re
It didn’t!
Re
Ferns whipped him. The needled tips of coniferous shrubs gouged at his eyes. Lianas held him back. He tore at the growth with his powerful hands. Suddenly, penetrating that jungle became like burrowing through a stack of green, wet hay.
Behind him thundered the leviathan of the reptilian world. It seemed to gain as though he were standing still. Great knots of the soggy earth, dug up by its churning feet, fell noisily.
Re
It was now no more than twice Re
And Re
That fall was his salvation. A deep trench had brought him down. Evidently it had been opened by the snout of some tremendous rooting dinosaur.
Re
The pursuing reptile passed over him! It was as though an earthquake had laid upon the surrounding ground. The earth walls of the trench gave under the vast weight. They caved.
Re
He was drawing in a breath of relief when the cave-in came. So he had a quantity of air in his lungs. He held it there. Not a muscle did he move.
The clumsy reptile turned slowly and came back. The stupid thing did not know what had become of its quarry. It tramped the vicinity for a time, searching.
Earth pressed in more tightly as it strode somewhere near Re
The big-fisted engineer had held his breath about as long as he could. His lungs felt lead-filled. His ears sang.
The giant dinosaur lumbered majestically away. It had given up. The earth covering Re
In a near frenzy, such torture was he suffering, Re