e it also stiffened and lay still. With yells of
triumph the Indians came flocking down from their caves and danced a
frenzied dance of victory round the dead bodies, in mad joy that two
more of the most dangerous of all their enemies had been slain. That
night they cut up and removed the bodies, not to eat--for the poison
was still active--but lest they should breed a pestilence. The great
reptilian hearts, however, each as large as a cushion, still lay there,
beating slowly and steadily, with a gentle rise and fall, in horrible
independent life. It was only upon the third day that the ganglia ran
down and the dreadful things were still.

Some day, when I have a better desk than a meat-tin and more helpful
tools than a worn stub of pencil and a last, tattered note-book, I will
write some fuller account of the Accala Indians--of our life amongst
them, and of the glimpses which we had of the strange conditions of
wondrous Maple White Land. Memory, at least, will never fail me, for
so long as the breath of life is in me, every hour and every action of
that period will stand out as hard and clear as do the first strange
happenings of our childhood. No new impressions could efface those
which are so deeply cut. When the time comes I will describe that
wondrous moonlit night upon the great lake when a young
ichthyosaurus--a strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at,
with bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye fixed
upon the top of his head--was entangled in an Indian net, and nearly
upset our canoe before we towed it ashore; the same night that a green
water-snake shot out from the rushes and carried off in its coils the
steersman of Challenger's canoe. I will tell, too, of the great
nocturnal white thing--to this day we do not know whether it was beast
or reptile--which lived in a vile swamp to the east of the lake, and
flitted about with a faint phosphorescent glimmer in the darkness. The
Indians were so terrified at it that they would not go near the place,
and, though we twice made expeditions and saw it each time, we could
not make our way through the deep marsh in which it lived. I can only
say that it seemed to be larger than a cow and had the strangest musky
odor. I will tell also of the huge bird which chased Challenger to the
shelter of the rocks one day--a great running bird, far taller than an
ostrich, with a vulture-like neck and cruel head which made it a
walking death.