snort, and was off with its family among the reeds, while the
armadillos also scuttled for shelter. A new-comer, a most monstrous
animal, was coming down the path.

For a moment I wondered where I could have seen that ungainly shape,
that arched back with triangular fringes along it, that strange
bird-like head held close to the ground. Then it came back, to me. It
was the stegosaurus--the very creature which Maple White had preserved
in his sketch-book, and which had been the first object which arrested
the attention of Challenger! There he was--perhaps the very specimen
which the American artist had encountered. The ground shook beneath
his tremendous weight, and his gulpings of water resounded through the
still night. For five minutes he was so close to my rock that by
stretching out my hand I could have touched the hideous waving hackles
upon his back. Then he lumbered away and was lost among the boulders.

Looking at my watch, I saw that it was half-past two o'clock, and high
time, therefore, that I started upon my homeward journey. There was no
difficulty about the direction in which I should return for all along I
had kept the little brook upon my left, and it opened into the central
lake within a stone's-throw of the boulder upon which I had been lying.
I set off, therefore, in high spirits, for I felt that I had done good
work and was bringing back a fine budget of news for my companions.
Foremost of all, of course, were the sight of the fiery caves and the
certainty that some troglodytic race inhabited them. But besides that
I could speak from experience of the central lake. I could testify
that it was full of strange creatures, and I had seen several land
forms of primeval life which we had not before encountered. I
reflected as I walked that few men in the world could have spent a
stranger night or added more to human knowledge in the course of it.

I was plodding up the slope, turning these thoughts over in my mind,
and had reached a point which may have been half-way to home, when my
mind was brought back to my own position by a strange noise behind me.
It was something between a snore and a growl, low, deep, and
exceedingly menacing. Some strange creature was evidently near me, but
nothing could be seen, so I hastened more rapidly upon my way. I had
traversed half a mile or so when suddenly the sound was repeated, still
behind me, but louder and more menacing than before. My heart stood