xpected attack, the assailant struck nothing but
a spot of foam where the head had disappeared. Simultaneously with the
lightning disappearance, there was a sudden boiling of the water some
eighty-odd feet away. But the great bird-lizard was either too furious
to notice this phenomenon or not sagacious enough to interpret it.
Flopping into the air again, and gnashing his beak-like jaws with
rage, he kept circling about the spot in heavy zigzags, expecting the
harmless looking head to reappear.

All at once his expectations were more than realized. The head not
only reappeared, but on a towering leather-colored column of a neck it
shot straight into the air to a height of twenty feet. The big, placid
eyes were now sparkling with anger. The flat, shovel jaws were gaping
open. They seized the swooping foe by the root of the tail, and, in
spite of screeches and wild flappings, plucked him down backwards. At
the surface of the water there was a convulsive struggle, and the wide
wings were drawn clean under.

For several minutes the water seethed and foamed, and little waves ran
clattering up the beach, while the owner of the harmless-looking head
trod his assailant down and crushed him among the weeds of the bottom.
Then the foam slowly crimsoned, and the mauled, battered body of the
great bird-lizard came up again; for the owner of the mysterious head
was a feeder on delicate weeds and succulent green-stuff only, and
would eat no blood-bearing food. The body was still struggling, and
the vast, dark, broken wings spread themselves in feeble spasms on the
surface. But they were not left to struggle long.

The water, in the distance, had been full of eager spectators of
the fight, and now it boiled as they rushed in upon the disabled
prey. Ravenous, cavern-jawed, fishlike beasts, half-porpoise,
half-alligator, swarmed upon the victim, tearing at it and at each
other. Some bore off trailing mouthfuls of dark wing-membrane,
others more substantial booty, while the rest fought madly in the
vortex of discolored foam.

At the beginning of the fray the grim figures perched along the red
ramparts of the cliff had shown signs of excitement, lifting their
high shoulders and half unfolding the stiff drapery of their wings. As
they saw their fellow overwhelmed they launched themselves from their
perch and came hooting hoarsely over the rank, green tops of the palms
and feathery calamaries. Swooping and circling they gathered over the