h among the faggots.

"You should not have taken such a risk!" we all cried.

"There was nothin' else to be done. If he had got among us we should
have shot each other in tryin' to down him. On the other hand, if we
had fired through the hedge and wounded him he would soon have been on
the top of us--to say nothin' of giving ourselves away. On the whole,
I think that we are jolly well out of it. What was he, then?"

Our learned men looked at each other with some hesitation.

"Personally, I am unable to classify the creature with any certainty,"
said Summerlee, lighting his pipe from the fire.

"In refusing to commit yourself you are but showing a proper scientific
reserve," said Challenger, with massive condescension. "I am not
myself prepared to go farther than to say in general terms that we have
almost certainly been in contact to-night with some form of carnivorous
dinosaur. I have already expressed my anticipation that something of
the sort might exist upon this plateau."

"We have to bear in mind," remarked Summerlee, "that there are many
prehistoric forms which have never come down to us. It would be rash
to suppose that we can give a name to all that we are likely to meet."

"Exactly. A rough classification may be the best that we can attempt.
To-morrow some further evidence may help us to an identification.
Meantime we can only renew our interrupted slumbers."

"But not without a sentinel," said Lord John, with decision. "We can't
afford to take chances in a country like this. Two-hour spells in the
future, for each of us."

"Then I'll just finish my pipe in starting the first one," said
Professor Summerlee; and from that time onwards we never trusted
ourselves again without a watchman.

In the morning it was not long before we discovered the source of the
hideous uproar which had aroused us in the night. The iguanodon glade
was the scene of a horrible butchery. From the pools of blood and the
enormous lumps of flesh scattered in every direction over the green
sward we imagined at first that a number of animals had been killed,
but on examining the remains more closely we discovered that all this
carnage came from one of these unwieldy monsters, which had been
literally torn to pieces by some creature not larger, perhaps, but far
more ferocious, than itself.

Our two professors sat in absorbed argument, examining piece after
piece, which showed the marks of savage teeth and of enormous c