the allosauri and the
saurean bellows of the diplodoci rose above the shouts of the soldiery
to fill the dust-laden air with a dreadful clamor. The battle now
swayed critically; a feather's weight on either side and one army
would roll back in red, irretrievable ruin. It was the psychological
instant. Nelson sensed it unerringly.

"Look!" shouted Hero John, dashing a rivulet of blood from his eyes,
"there fights the dog-begotten Jereboam himself! Halor van! Smite, ye
soldiers of Atlans! Smite!"

Following the line of the outstretched hand. Nelson caught a glimpse
of an enormous, eagle nosed warrior who, clad in gleaming, diamond
studded harness, fought like a paladin of old. Powerful as a dark Ares
the sable browed Jereboam raged among the dismayed Atlantean hoplites,
beating them to earth with terrible ferocity.

* * * * *

It was a long shot, one he might readily have been forgiven in missing
but with the speed of thought Victor Nelson sprang from his podoko,
dropped on one knee behind a pile of corpses and, uttering a fervent
prayer, fired full at Jereboam's black head.

The nearest combatants drew back momentarily at the unfamiliar thunder
of the report and fell silent while the groans and shrieks of the
wounded rose loud. As a man looking through many thickness of glass,
so Nelson saw Jereboam reel on his splendidly caparisoned podoko,
clasp both hands to his forehead and sink to earth.

Hero Giles, somewhere far in the Atlantean van, saw what transpired
and capitalized it with the inspiration of a genius.

"Jereboam is dead!" he shouted in ringing tones, and flashed his red
stained sword. "Woe to Jarmuth this day! Smite, ye sons of Atlans. Woe
to Jarmuth--Jereboam is fallen!"

And smite hard the reinforced Atlanteans did. Filled with a new
courage they advanced so determinedly that the disconcerted and
dismayed Jarmuthians broke and fled in a disastrous, panic-stricken
rout back over the plain of Poseidon towards the boiling river.

The ground was already carpeted with dead and with abandoned
equipment, when fresh packs of allosauri were loosed on the fleeing
Jarmuthians to wreak havoc indescribable and, ere long, only the
triumphant, panting Atlanteans remained on the field.

CHAPTER VI

There was music and high revelry in the fortress of Cierum that night,
and Victor Nelson, embarrassed and flushed with the extravagant
adoration of all Atlans, sat by the Emperor Al