eeth. In the final melee one of the smaller revellers was
himself pounced upon and devoured.

Then, as if by consent of a mutual distrust, the throng drew quickly
apart, each eyeing his neighbor warily, and scattered into the woods.
Only the two grim bird-lizards remained, seeming to have a sort of
understanding or partnership, or possibly being a mated pair. They
pried into the cartilages and between the joints of the skeletons with
the iron wedges of their beaks, till there was not another tit-bit to
be enjoyed. Then, hooting once more with satisfaction, they spread
their batlike vanes and flapped darkly off again to their red
watch-tower on the cliff.

When all was once more quiet the giant visitor fell to pasturing among
the crisp and tender water-weeds. It took a long time to fill his
cavernous paunch by way of that slender neck of his, and when he was
satisfied he went composedly to sleep, his body perfectly concealed
under the water, his head resting on a little islet of matted reeds in
a thicket of "mares' tails." When he woke up again the sun was
half-way down to the west, and the beach glowed hotly in the afternoon
light. Everything was drenched in heavy stillness. The visitor made up
his drowsy mind that he must leave his hiding-place and go and bask in
that delicious warmth.

He was just bestirring himself to carry out his purpose, when once
more a swaying in the rank foliage of the cycads caught his vigilant
eye. Discreetly he drew back into hiding, the place being, as he had
found it, so full of violent surprises.

Suddenly there emerged upon the beach a monster even more extraordinary
in appearance than himself. It was about thirty-five feet in length,
and its ponderous bulk was supported on legs so short and bowed that
it crawled with its belly almost dragging the ground. Its small head,
which it carried close to the earth, was lizard-like, shallow-skulled,
feeble-looking, and its jaws cleft back past the stupid eyes. In
fact, it was an inoffensive-looking head for such an imposing body.
At the base of the head began a system of defensive armor that
looked as if it might be proof against artillery. Up over the
shoulders, over the mighty arch of the back, and down over the haunches
as far as the middle of the ponderous tail, ran a series of immense flat
plates of horn, with pointed tips and sharpened edges. The largest of
these plates, those that covered the center of the back, were each
three feet i