under shelter of the blue maxima vapor which, discharged by the
protectons or light infantry, dispelled the scalding steam clouds
launched from the Jarmuthian portable retortii.

"Halor van!" Hero John shouted the Atlantean war cry. "Halor van!
Come Friend Nelson, this day shall the treacherous swine of Jarmuth
drown in their own blood! Halor van!"

Nelson replied nothing. He was too busy drawing a bead on a gorgeously
arrayed enemy officer who appeared to be directing the defence.

Faster and faster rushed the podokos, forty, fifty miles an hour, a
carnate thunderbolt hurled straight at the enemy center. Under a hot
fire of grenades dozens of the lancers fell and once, when a fungus
bomb broke near by, Nelson saw half a dozen Atlanteans tumble from
their saddles, the hideous yellow growths already sprouting from
nostrils, mouth and ears. The turmoil became deafening,
indescribable--like the roar of a crowded subway.

The American had a brief glimpse of a mountainous diplodocus assailed
by half a dozen hissing, shrieking allosauri who, employing jaws and
claws, ripped great, shuddering chucks of flesh from the agonized and
unwieldy monster on whose back the frantic Jarmuthians fought with
terrible ferocity.

* * * * *

As agile as grasshoppers, those fierce war dogs ripped and worried
their prey. One of them clung like a bulldog to the doomed diplodocus'
head, though the twenty-foot neck writhed and whirled frantically in
effort to shake it loose. Another allosaurus, whining with eagerness,
actually clambered up the back of an assailed giant only to fall back
under the blast of a retortii mounted in the howdah. Bathed in live
steam, with bones showing through its melting, quivering flesh, the
allosaurus collapsed backwards, but another instantly took its place
and, gaining its goal with a terrific leap, made a shambles of the
howdah, tearing the men in it apart as a lion does an antelope.

Nelson found himself very busy. The charging podokesos were now in the
midst of the Jarmuthian heavy infantry, slashing down at a maze of
yelling, black-bearded, Semitic faces. Once Nelson was nearly
speared, shooting his assailant just as the lance glimmered over his
heart. Again he saw the Atlantean hoplites beaten back amid a
pestilential fog of fungus gas which stretched them in kicking,
loathsome heaps on the dusty plain. The uproar became terrific,
indescribable, as the whistling screams of