shields, charged with a lively
dolphin in the act of swimming. Some of them, however, held short
hoses in their hands, hoses that sprouted from tight brass coils
strapped to their broad shoulders.

* * * * *

Again the commanding figure aloft raised the horn. From the tail of
his eye Nelson caught the gleam of metal in the orange glare. While a
blast, harsh as the scream of a fire siren, echoed and re-echoed
eerily through the passage, there appeared a fresh detachment. Nelson
shrank back in horror, for these bronze-armored warriors led, at the
end of a powerful chain, two more of those huge, ferocious allosaurs,
exactly like the one he had slain but a short while back.

Like well regulated automatons the hoplite rank opened to permit the
passage of those repulsive, eager monsters, then closed up again and
halted, spears levelled before them in the precise manner of an
ancient Grecian phalanx, while the men with those curious hose-like
contrivances ran out to guard the flanks.

"I'm done for now," thought Nelson as he threw off the Winchester's
safety catch. "I suppose they'll turn those nightmares loose on me."

He was right. For all the world as though they led war dogs, the
keepers in brazen armor advanced, the dull metallic clank of their
accoutrement clearly discernible above the sibilant hiss of their
hideous charges, which hopped along grotesquely like kangaroos, using
their long and powerful tails as a counterpoise.

Then the officer watching from the left hand swallow's nest shouted a
hoarse, unintelligible command, whereupon one of the keepers raised
his right hand in a sharp gesture that instantly flattened the
incredible monster to earth, exactly like an obedient bird dog.

As in a fantastic dream Nelson watched one of the armored guardians
unsnap the hook of the powerful chain by which his allosaurus was
secured. Then, whistling sharply, he clapped his hands and pointed
straight at the motionless aviator. The creature's green white eyes
flickered back and forth, and a chill, colder than the outer Arctic,
invaded Nelson's breast as those unearthly eyes came to rest upon him.

* * * * *

Meanwhile the other allosaurus remained crouched, whining impatiently
for its keepers to cast it loose.

Fixing burning eyes upon the American, the foremost keeper threw back
his head. "Ahre-e-e!" he shouted. Instantly the freed allosaurus
arose, balanc