still within me as it flashed across me that the beast, whatever it
was, must surely be after ME. My skin grew cold and my hair rose at
the thought. That these monsters should tear each other to pieces was
a part of the strange struggle for existence, but that they should turn
upon modern man, that they should deliberately track and hunt down the
predominant human, was a staggering and fearsome thought. I remembered
again the blood-beslobbered face which we had seen in the glare of Lord
John's torch, like some horrible vision from the deepest circle of
Dante's hell. With my knees shaking beneath me, I stood and glared
with starting eyes down the moonlit path which lay behind me. All was
quiet as in a dream landscape. Silver clearings and the black patches
of the bushes--nothing else could I see. Then from out of the silence,
imminent and threatening, there came once more that low, throaty
croaking, far louder and closer than before. There could no longer be
a doubt. Something was on my trail, and was closing in upon me every
minute.

I stood like a man paralyzed, still staring at the ground which I had
traversed. Then suddenly I saw it. There was movement among the
bushes at the far end of the clearing which I had just traversed. A
great dark shadow disengaged itself and hopped out into the clear
moonlight. I say "hopped" advisedly, for the beast moved like a
kangaroo, springing along in an erect position upon its powerful hind
legs, while its front ones were held bent in front of it. It was of
enormous size and power, like an erect elephant, but its movements, in
spite of its bulk, were exceedingly alert. For a moment, as I saw its
shape, I hoped that it was an iguanodon, which I knew to be harmless,
but, ignorant as I was, I soon saw that this was a very different
creature. Instead of the gentle, deer-shaped head of the great
three-toed leaf-eater, this beast had a broad, squat, toad-like face
like that which had alarmed us in our camp. His ferocious cry and the
horrible energy of his pursuit both assured me that this was surely one
of the great flesh-eating dinosaurs, the most terrible beasts which
have ever walked this earth. As the huge brute loped along it dropped
forward upon its fore-paws and brought its nose to the ground every
twenty yards or so. It was smelling out my trail. Sometimes, for an
instant, it was at fault. Then it would catch it up again and come
bounding swiftly along the pa