--also that it was one of the
Ba-gcatya. With a shudder he remembered the luckless wretch he had seen
dragged away but a day or two before his own seizure--whether for
evil-doing or as a customary sacrifice he had been condemned to this,
Laurence had not inquired at the time. Casting one more look at the
cave, and satisfying himself that the monster had not emerged, Laurence
went down to examine the body.

It was that of a man in the prime of life--and wearing the head-ring. It
was lying on its back, the throat upturned and protruding. And then
Laurence shudderingly noticed two round gaping orifices at the base of
the throat, clearly where the great nippers of the monster had
punctured. The limbs, too, were scratched and scored as though with
claws; and upon the dead face was such an awful expression of the very
extremity of horror and dread as the spectator, accustomed as he was to
such sights, had never beheld stamped on the human countenance before.
And beholding it now, Laurence Stanninghame felt that the perspiration
was oozing upon him at every pore, for he realized that he was looking
upon a foresight of his own fate; for was he not that most perfectly and
completely helpless of all God's creatures--an unarmed man!

He had not so much as a stick or a pocket-knife to resist the onslaught
of this blood-drinking monster--no, not even a boot, for it flashed
across his mind at that moment that a good iron-shod heel might be
better than nothing. He was wearing only a low-soled pair of ordinary
_velschoenen_--hide shoes, to wit. There were not even stones lying
about the ground, save very small ones, and he had no means of loosening
rock slabs large enough to serve as weapons. There was no place of
refuge to climb into afforded by ledges or pinnacles of rock, and even
were there, why, the thing could surely come up after him as easily as
the common tarantula could run up a wall. Nothing is more completely
demoralizing than the helplessness of an unarmed man. With his
Express--or his six-shooter--this one would have regarded the situation
in the light of a wholly new and adventurous excitement--with even a
large strong-bladed knife he would have been willing to take his
chances. But he was totally unarmed. It seemed to Laurence that in that
brief while he had lived a lifetime of mortal fear.

Then with a mighty effort he pulled himself together. He would return to
where he had left his stores ere commencing the explora