an experience which
left a fearful impression upon our minds, and made us thankful that
Lord John had worked so hard in making our retreat impregnable. We
were all sleeping round our dying fire when we were aroused--or,
rather, I should say, shot out of our slumbers--by a succession of the
most frightful cries and screams to which I have ever listened. I know
no sound to which I could compare this amazing tumult, which seemed to
come from some spot within a few hundred yards of our camp. It was as
ear-splitting as any whistle of a railway-engine; but whereas the
whistle is a clear, mechanical, sharp-edged sound, this was far deeper
in volume and vibrant with the uttermost strain of agony and horror.
We clapped our hands to our ears to shut out that nerve-shaking appeal.
A cold sweat broke out over my body, and my heart turned sick at the
misery of it. All the woes of tortured life, all its stupendous
indictment of high heaven, its innumerable sorrows, seemed to be
centered and condensed into that one dreadful, agonized cry. And then,
under this high-pitched, ringing sound there was another, more
intermittent, a low, deep-chested laugh, a growling, throaty gurgle of
merriment which formed a grotesque accompaniment to the shriek with
which it was blended. For three or four minutes on end the fearsome
duet continued, while all the foliage rustled with the rising of
startled birds. Then it shut off as suddenly as it began. For a long
time we sat in horrified silence. Then Lord John threw a bundle of
twigs upon the fire, and their red glare lit up the intent faces of my
companions and flickered over the great boughs above our heads.

"What was it?" I whispered.

"We shall know in the morning," said Lord John. "It was close to
us--not farther than the glade."

"We have been privileged to overhear a prehistoric tragedy, the sort of
drama which occurred among the reeds upon the border of some Jurassic
lagoon, when the greater dragon pinned the lesser among the slime,"
said Challenger, with more solemnity than I had ever heard in his
voice. "It was surely well for man that he came late in the order of
creation. There were powers abroad in earlier days which no courage
and no mechanism of his could have met. What could his sling, his
throwing-stick, or his arrow avail him against such forces as have been
loose to-night? Even with a modern rifle it would be all odds on the
monster."

"I think I should back my