its terrific stride, dreadful jaws
wide apart--jaws that could, without an effort, cut a horse in half.

* * * * *

A fear such as he had never known racked Nelson's consciousness as he
found he was hindermost of the cavalcade, which was strung out like a
field of racers. The other riders crouched low in their saddles like
jockeys, lances held straight out before them, and furiously goaded
their strange mounts with curious hooks. Nelson was vastly relieved to
get a glimpse of Alden far in the lead, almost beside the Atlantean
Prince. His podoko was evidently better than the average.

Faster and faster pursuers and pursued raced across level meadows,
over straight, white roads and rolling grain fields. Wind whistled
madly in Nelson's ears, filled his eyes with tears, and made his
short, dark hair snap, but two huge allosauri were now not twenty
yards behind and _gaining with appalling speed!_

On the verge of madness, Nelson hammered his heels into the podoko's
scaly side and wished he dared let go the saddle horn to draw his
pistol, but to loose his grip was to risk falling off.

Closer and closer! Two enormous nightmarish heads were actually
snapping at the fleeing podoko's tail. Then fear must have inspired
the reptile Nelson bestrode, for it put on a sudden desperate burst of
speed which carried it past the next two lancers. In passing he
glimpsed the doomed wretches, pale-faced and horrified, as they
frantically goaded their failing podokos.

A moment later, piercing screams from just behind assailed Nelson's
ears, but when he looked to the rear once more it was to find that a
wide gap had opened between him and the great monsters behind.
Evidently, the heavy-built allosauri were unable to long maintain the
terrific pace set by the smaller and more agile podokos whose maximum
speed Nelson judged to be well over sixty miles an hour.

* * * * *

The pilot's eyes narrowed on beholding, in clear relief and not far
away, the majestic, whitish outline of mighty Heliopolis, whose lofty
towers, graceful domes and frowning citadels shone pink under the
leaping, blinding glare on Mount Pelion.

"We certainly picked a nice time to drop in on this God-forsaken
country," grunted Alden as the walls of Heliopolis loomed near. "We
seem to have crashed into the busiest days they've had in centuries.
How many shots you got?"

Nelson, swaying to the steady trot