searching eyes! It was unthinkable. They crouched low as they darted
from their concealment to new shelter, and crawled behind rocks when
open ground must be crossed.

They had dared regain hope when again the paralyzing scream ripped
through the silence. It was answered by another and another from
distant points. The valley of the caves was spewing out its loathsome
dwellers from their winter's sleep.

The men raced openly now for the heights. As he leaped, Jerry turned
to see over one shoulder a pursuer appear. It was one of the
flesh-eaters, head to the ground on their trail. At sight of them its
cry rang out again. It bounded forward in pursuit. And again there
were answering screams from the jungle growth.

The men threw themselves frantically up the mountainside. Once Winslow
landed in a sprawling heap and groaned as he drew himself to his feet.
The beast was below them. Jerry seized a great boulder, whose
earth-weight would have made it immovable. He raised it above his head
and sent it crashing down the slope.

* * * * *

Another and another he threw. One struck the great beast in mid-air;
it was pure luck that drove the stone crashing against the creature's
head. It fell back with a blood-chilling snarl that was half shriek.
Another monster appeared, to throw itself upon the first and tear at
the crushed, waving head.

Jerry took his companion by the arm. His voice came strangled from his
straining lungs. "Are you hurt?" he gasped. "Can you run?"

Winslow nodded breathlessly. Again they gathered themselves for their
wild, leaping retreat toward the top. An uproar of furious fighting
behind them marked where a score of the monsters had gathered for the
feast.

Jerry watched vainly for some refuge, some pinnacle of rock or
precipice they could climb, and from which they could beat down their
attackers. There was nothing but the welter of volcanic waste: rock
heaps and boulders and smooth streams of solid lava. Perhaps in the
crater, he thought, over the ragged crest of the cone, might be some
place of safety.

The pack was in full cry again as they climbed gaspingly to the top.
Beyond lay the funnel-shaped crater. Its vast inner slopes were less
steep than the hill they had climbed. They were covered with a jungle,
like those they had seen--a maze of red toadstools and distorted
trees.

Jerry turned savagely to face the oncoming brutes. This, he knew, was
the end. For