rsupial lion--'"

"You go to hell!" yelled Dodd, nearly upsetting his shell as he shook
his fist at his enemy.

High above the rasping sound came Dodd's shrill whistle. Just audible to
human ears, though probably sounding like the roar of thunder to those
of the beetles, there was no need to wonder what it was.

It was the call to slaughter.

Like a black cloud the beetles shot forward. A serried phalanx covered
the two men and the girl, hovering a few feet overhead, the long legs
dangling to within arm's reach. And a terrible cry of fear broke from
Haidia's lips.

Suddenly Tommy remembered Bram's cigarette-lighter. He pulled it from
his pocket and ignited it.

Small as the flame was, it was actinically much more powerful than the
brighter phosphorescence of the fungi behind them. The beetle-cloud
overhead parted. The strident sound was broken into a confused buzzing
as the terrified, blinded beetles plopped into the stream.

None of them, fortunately, fell into either of the three shells, but the
mass of struggling monsters in the water was hardly less formidable to
the safety of the occupants than that menacing cloud overhead.

"Get clear!" Tommy yelled to Dodd, trying to help the shell along with
his hands.

* * * * *

He heard Bram's cry of baffled rage, and, looking backward, could not
refrain from a laugh of triumph. Bram's trained steeds had taken fright
and overset him. Bram had fallen into the red mud beside the stream,
from which he was struggling up, plastered from head to feet, and
shaking his fists and evidently cursing, though his words could not be
heard.

"How about your marsupial lion now, Bram?" yelled Dodd. "No monotremes
before the pleistocene! D'you get that? That's my slogan now and for
ever more!"

Bram shrieked and raved, and seemed to be inciting the beetles to a
renewed assault. The air was still thick with them, but Tommy was waving
the cigarette-lighter in a flaming arc, which cleared the way for them.

Then suddenly came disaster. The flame went out! Tommy closed the
lighter with a snap and opened it. In vain. In his excitement he must
have spilled all the contents, for it would not catch.

Bram saw and yelled derision. The beetle-cloud was thickening. Tommy,
now abreast of his companions on the widening stream, saw the imminent
end.

* * * * *

And then once more fate intervened. For, leaping through the air