bers that they covered
the ground, while huge pterodactyls, more venomous-looking than the
reptiles, hovered about the opening above.

Arranging a double line of electric wires in a circle about the
mastodon and themselves, they sat down and did justice to the meal,
with appetites that might have dismayed the waiting throng. Whenever a
snake's head came in contact with one wire, while his tail touched the
other, he gave a spasmodic leap and fell back dead. If he happened to
fall across the wires, lie immediately began to sizzle, a cloud of
smoke arose, and lie was reduced to ashes.

"Any time that we are short of mastodon or other good game," said
Ayrault, "we need not hunger if we are not above grilled snake."

All laughed at this, and Bearwarden, drawing a whiskey-flask from his
pocket, passed it to his friends.

"When we rig our fishing-tackle," he continued, "and have fresh fish
for dinner, an entree of rattlesnake, roast mastodon for the piece de
resistance, and begin the whole with turtle soup and clams, of which
there must be plenty on the ocean beach, we shall want to stay here the
rest of our lives."

"I suspect we shall have to," replied Ayrault "for we shall become so
like Thanksgiving turkeys that the Callisto's door will be too small
for us."

While they sat and talked, the flowers and plants about them softly
began their song, and, as a visual accompaniment, the fire-flies they
had not before noticed twinkled through the forest.

"My goodness!" exclaimed Cortlandt, "how time goes here! We started to
get breakfast, and now it's growing dark."

Hastily cutting some thick but tender slices from the mastodon, and
impaling them with the remains of the heart on a sharpened stake, they
took up the wires, and the battery that had been supplying the current,
and retraced their steps by the way they had come. Their rubber-lined
cowhide boots protected them from all but the largest snakes, and as
these were for the most part already enjoying their gorge, they
trampled with impunity on those that remained in their path. When they
had covered about half the distance to the raft, a huge
boa-constrictor, which they had mistaken for a branch, fell upon
Cortlandt, pinioning his arms and bearing him to the ground. Dropping
their loads, Bearwarden and Ayrault threw themselves upon the monster
with their hunting-knives with such vim that in a few seconds it beat a
hasty retreat, leaving, as it did so, a wake o