sure I fell asleep as soon as I had stretched myself beside Ajor.

During the three days which followed, our progress was exasperatingly

slow. I doubt if we made ten miles in the entire three days. The

country was hideously savage, so that we were forced to spend hours

at a time in hiding from one or another of the great beasts which

menaced us continually. There were fewer reptiles; but the quantity

of carnivora seemed to have increased, and the reptiles that we

did see were perfectly gigantic. I shall never forget one enormous

specimen which we came upon browsing upon water-reeds at the edge

of the great sea. It stood well over twelve feet high at the rump,

its highest point, and with its enormously long tail and neck it

was somewhere between seventy-five and a hundred feet in length.

Its head was ridiculously small; its body was unarmored, but its

great bulk gave it a most formidable appearance. My experience of

Caspakian life led me to believe that the gigantic creature would

but have to see us to attack us, and so I raised my rifle and at

the same time drew away toward some brush which offered concealment;

but Ajor only laughed, and picking up a stick, ran toward the great

thing, shouting. The little head was raised high upon the long

neck as the animal stupidly looked here and there in search of the

author of the disturbance. At last its eyes discovered tiny little

Ajor, and then she hurled the stick at the diminutive head. With

a cry that sounded not unlike the bleat of a sheep, the colossal

creature shuffled into the water and was soon submerged.

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