e of light. Suddenly, all along one
side of the island there arose a sound of heavy splashing, and out of
the darkness came a row of small, malignant eyes, all fixed upon the
feasters. Then into the circle of light swam the masks of giant
alligators and strange, tusked caymans. Quite unawed by the fires they
came ashore with a clumsy rush, open-mouthed.

While the clamoring women snatched the children away to the other side
of the encampment, Grom and the other warriors hurled themselves upon
the hideous invaders as they came waddling with amazing nimbleness in
between the fires. But these were no assailants to be met with bow and
spear. At Grom's sharp orders each warrior snatched a blazing brand
from the fire, and drove it into the gaping throat of his nearest
assailant. In their stupid ferocity the monsters invariably bit upon
the brand before they realized its nature. Then, bellowing with pain,
they wheeled about and scrambled back toward the water, lashing out
with their gigantic tails, so that three of the warriors were knocked
over and half a dozen of the fires were scattered.

The feasters had hardly more than settled down after this startling
visitation, when from the darkness inland came a hoarse, hooting cry,
followed by a succession of crashing thuds, as if a pair of mammoths
were playing leap-frog in the jungle. All the men sprang again to
their weapons, and stood waiting, in a sudden hush, straining their
eyes into the perilous dark. Some of the women herded the children
into the very center of the island, while others fed the fires with
feverish haste. The hooting call, and the heavy, leaping thuds, came
nearer and nearer at a terrifying speed; and suddenly, amid the
far-off, vaguely-lighted tangle of the tree-trunks appeared a giant
form, seven or eight times the height of Grom himself. Leaping upon
its mighty hind-legs, and holding its mailed fore-paws before its
chest, it came bounding like a colossal kangaroo through the jungle,
smashing down the branches and smaller trees as it came, and balancing
itself at each spring with its massive, reptilian tail. Its vast head,
something like a cross between that of a monstrous horse and that of
an alligator, was upborne upon a long, snaky neck, and its eyes, huge
and round and lidless, were like two discs of shining and enamelled
metal where they caught the flash of the camp-fires.

This appalling shape had apparently no dread whatever of the flames.
When i