into the warm atmosphere of Caspak, the creature came for me again,

rising above me so that it might swoop down upon me. Nothing could

better have suited my armament, since my machine-gun was pointed

upward at an angle of about 45 degrees and could not be either

depressed or elevated by the pilot. If I had brought someone along

with me, we could have raked the great reptile from almost any

position, but as the creature's mode of attack was always from above,

he always found me ready with a hail of bullets. The battle must have

lasted a minute or more before the thing suddenly turned completely

over in the air and fell to the ground.

Bowen and I roomed together at college, and I learned a lot from

him outside my regular course. He was a pretty good scholar despite

his love of fun, and his particular hobby was paleontology. He

used to tell me about the various forms of animal and vegetable life

which had covered the globe during former eras, and so I was pretty

well acquainted with the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals

of paleolithic times. I knew that the thing that had attacked me

was some sort of pterodactyl which should have been extinct millions

of years ago. It was all that I needed to realize that Bowen had

exaggerated nothing in his manuscript.

Having disposed of my first foe, I set myself once more to search

for a landing-place near to the base of the cliffs beyond which my

party awaited me. I knew how anxious they would be for word from

me, and I was equally anxious to relieve their minds and also to

get them and our supplies well within Caspak, so that we might set

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