onde head was raised slowly. "I
don't know." His voice came very thickly. "I--I'm still dizzy. What's
happened?"

"Damned if I know; but those bright boys have evidently heaved us into
a calaboose of some kind!"

Nelson, on peering about, had discovered that one end of the cell was
closed only by a series of massive bronze bars; the two other walls
were solid masonry; while the fourth was also solid but fitted with a
small oval door of bronze.

"Calaboose? The hell you say!" Alden coughed feebly. "My God, but that
steam was terrible stuff. I nearly smothered before I got knocked
out."

Slowly, the younger aviator looked about, and suddenly his eyes
widened in an expression of indescribable horror.

"Look!" Alden's voice had died to a shaken whisper. "My God, Nelson,
we're finished! Look at that allosaurus!"

* * * * *

Following the line indicated by the pilot's shaking forefinger, Nelson
peered out through the series of great bars while a shudder shook his
aching body. Though he had seen these fearful monsters on many
occasions, yet it was never from such a position as that in which he
now found himself. To his ears came a sibilant hissing like that of a
thousand serpents; and, quivering in every nerve, he forced his eyes
open once again, to discover that the cell which he and his companion
occupied was but one of a series of cells surrounding a huge square in
which were imprisoned perhaps twenty or thirty of those horrible,
gargoylesque creatures which were the Atlantean dogs of war. Some
thirty-four feet in length, the enormous, slate-grey monsters hopped
leisurely about, their warty hides and huge luminous eyes betraying
their reptilian origin. In shape the allosauri resembled loathsome and
titanic kangaroos as they lumbered awkwardly to and fro, picking
viciously at what appeared to be fragments of human flesh and bones.

While the two prisoners crouched paralyzed with horror, one of the
nightmarish creatures came hopping over and, pressing a head as big as
a steam scoop against the bars, stared in with huge, pale green eyes.
A long minute the ghastly creature remained looking in, clearly
outlined by the orange glow from outside.

* * * * *

The doomed aviators found something fearfully fascinating about those
narrow vertical irises set in pupils the size of dinner plates.
Uttering a deep growl, the allosaurus shuffled nearer, and impatientl