I turned to Perry to suggest that it might be wise to seek other

surroundings--the idea had evidently occurred to Perry previously,

for he was already a hundred paces away, and with each second his

prodigious bounds increased the distance. I had never guessed what

latent speed possibilities the old gentleman possessed.

I saw that he was headed toward a little point of the forest which

ran out toward the sea not far from where we had been standing,

and as the mighty creature, the sight of which had galvanized him

into such remarkable action, was forging steadily toward me. I

set off after Perry, though at a somewhat more decorous pace. It

was evident that the massive beast pursuing us was not built for

speed, so all that I considered necessary was to gain the trees

sufficiently ahead of it to enable me to climb to the safety of

some great branch before it came up.

Notwithstanding our danger I could not help but laugh at Perry's

frantic capers as he essayed to gain the safety of the lower branches

of the trees he now had reached. The stems were bare for a distance

of some fifteen feet--at least on those trees which Perry attempted

to ascend, for the suggestion of safety carried by the larger of

the forest giants had evidently attracted him to them. A dozen

times he scrambled up the trunks like a huge cat only to fall back

to the ground once more, and with each failure he cast a horrified

glance over his shoulder at the oncoming brute, simultaneously

emitting terror-stricken shrieks that awoke the echoes of the grim

forest.

At length he spied a dangling creeper about the bigness of one's

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