for in the darkness we
could see but a few feet ahead. Desiree's voice was sufficient guide
for us.

Finally we reached her. I don't know what I expected to see, but
certainly not that which met our eyes.

"Your spear!" cried Harry, dashing off to the right, away from the
stream.

My spear was ready. I followed.

Desiree was standing exactly in the spot where we had left her,
screaming at the top of her voice.

Around her, on every side, was a struggling, pushing mass of the
animals we had frightened away from the carcass of the reptile. There
were hundreds of them packed tightly together, crowding toward her,
some leaping on the backs of others, some trampled to the ground
beneath the feet of their fellows. They did not appear to be actually
attacking her, but we could not see distinctly.

This we saw in a flash and an instant later had dashed forward into the
mass with whirling spears. It was a farce, rather than a fight.

We brought our spears down on the swarm of heads and backs without even
troubling to take aim. They pressed against our legs; we waded through
as though it were a current of water. Those we hit either fell or ran;
they waited for no second blow.

Desiree had ceased her cries.

"They won't hurt you!" Harry had shouted. "Where's your spear?"

"Gone. They came on me before I had time to get it."

"Then kick 'em, push 'em--anything. They're nothing but pigs."

They had the senseless stubbornness of pigs, at least. They seemed
absolutely unable to realize that their presence was not desired till
they actually felt the spear--utterly devoid even of instinct.

"So this is what you captured for us at the risk of your life!" I
shouted to Harry in disgust. "They haven't even sense enough to
squeal."

We finally reached Desiree's side and cleared a space round her. But
it took us another fifteen minutes of pushing and thrusting and
indiscriminate massacre before we routed the brutes. When they did
decide to go they lost no time, but scampered away toward the water
with a sliding, tumbling rush.

"Gad!" exclaimed Harry, resting on his spear. "And here's a pretty
job. Look at that! I wish they'd carry off the dead ones."

"Ugh! The nasty brutes! I was never so frightened in my life," said
Desiree.

"You frightened us, all right," Harry retorted. "Utterly fungoed. I
never ran so fast in my life. And all you had to do was shake your
spear at 'em and say boo! I thought