第 16 页

knot, but was already dead. The jellyfish did not swallow, but

completely surrounded its prey, and again rose in the air, with

the snake's black body clearly visible within it.

"Our Will-o'-the-wisp is prettier by night than by day," said

Bearwarden. "I suggest that we investigate this further."

"How?" asked Cortlandt.

"By destroying its life," replied Bearwarden. "Give it one

barrel from your gun, doctor, and see if it can then defy

gravitation."

Accordingly Cortlandt took careful aim at the object, about

twenty-yards away, and fired. The main portion of the jellyfish,

with the snake still in its embrace, sailed away, but many pounds

of jelly fell to the ground. Most of this remained where it had

fallen, but a few of the larger pieces showed a faint luminosity

and rose again.

"You cannot kill that which is simply a mass of protoplasm," said

Cortlandt. "Doubtless each of those pieces will form a new

organism. This proves that there are ramifications and

developments of life which we never dreamed of."

CHAPTER VII.

AN UNSEEN HUNTER.

They calculated that they had come ten or twelve miles from the

place at which they built the raft, while the damp salt breeze

blowing from the south showed them they were near the ocean.

Concluding that large bodies of water must be very much alike on

all planets, they decided to make for a range of hills due north

and a few miles off, and to complete the circuit of the square in

returning to the Callisto. The soft wet sand was covered with

huge and curious tracks, doubtless made by creatures that had

come to the stream during the night to drink, and they noticed

with satisfaction as they set out that the fresher ones led off

in the direction in which they were going. For practice, they

blew off the heads of the boa-constrictors as they hung from the

trees, and of the other huge snakes that moved along the ground,

with explosive bullets, in every thicket through which they

passed, knowing that the game, never having been shot at, would

not take fright at the noise. Sometimes they came upon great

masses of snakes, intertwined and coiled like worms; in these

cases Cortlandt brought his gun into play, raking them with

duck-shot to his heart's content. "As the function of these

reptiles," he explained, "is to form a soil on which higher life

may grow, we may as well help along their metamorphosis by

artificial means." They were impressed by the tremendous

cannon-like reports of their firearms, which they perceived at

once resulted from the great density of the Jovian atmosphere.

And this was also a considerable aid to them in making muscular

exertion, for it had just the reverse effect of rarefied mountain

air, and they seldom had to expand their lungs fully in order to

breathe.

The ground continued to be marked with very large footprints.

Often the impressions were those of a biped like some huge bird,

except that occasionally the creature had put down one or both

forefeet, and a thick tail had evidently dragged nearly all the

time it walked erect. Presently, coming to something they had

taken for a large flat rock, they were surprised to see it move.

It was about twelve feet wide by eighteen feet long, while its

shell seemed at least a foot thick, and it was of course the

largest turtle they had ever seen.

"Twenty-four people could dine at a table of this size with

ease," said Bearwarden, "while it would make soup for a regiment.

I wonder if it belongs to the snapping or diamond-backed

species."

At this juncture the monster again moved.

"As it is heading in our direction," resumed Bearwarden, "I vote

we strike for a free pass," and, taking a run, he sprang with his

spiked boots upon the turtle's shell and clambered upon the flat

top, which was about six feet from the ground. He was quickly

followed by Ayrault, who was not much ahead of Cortlandt, for,

notwithstanding his fifty years, the professor was very spry.

The tortoise was almost the exact counterpart of the Glyptodon

asper that formerly existed on earth, and shambled along at a

jerky gait, about half as fast again as they could walk, and

while it continued to go in their direction they were greatly

pleased. They soon found that by dropping the butts of their

rifles sharply and simultaneously on either side, just back of

the head, they could direct their course, by making their steed

swerve away from the stamping.

"It is strange," said Ayrault, "that, with the

exception of the mastodon and this tortoise, we have seen

none of the monsters that seem to appear at the close of

Carboniferous periods, although the ground is covered

with their tracks."

"Probably we did not reach the grounds at the right time of day,"

replied Bearwarden. "The large game doubtless stays in the woods

and jungles till night."

"I fancy," said Cortlandt, "we shall find representatives of all

the species that once lived upon the earth. In the case of the

singing flowers and the Jack-o'-lantern jelly-fish, we have, in

addition, seen developments the existence of which no scientist

has ever before even suspected."

Occasionally the tortoise stopped, whereupon they poked it from

behind with their knives. It was a vicious-looking brute, and

had a huge horny beak, with which it bit off young trees that

stood in its way as though they had been blades of grass. They

were passing through a valley about half a mile wide, bordered on

each side by woods, when Bearwarden suddenly exclaimed, "Here we

have it!" and, looking forward, they unexpectedly saw a head rise

and remain poised about fifteen feet from the ground. It was a

dinosaur, and belonged to the scaled or armoured species. In a

few moments another head appeared, and towered several feet above

the first. The head was obviously reptilian, but had a beak

similar to that of their tortoise. The hind legs were developed

like those of a kangaroo, while the small rudimentary forepaws,

which could be used as hands or for going quadruped-fashion, now

hung down. The strong thick tail was evidently of great use to

them when standing erect, by forming a sort of tripod.

"How I wish we could take a pair of those creatures with us when

we return to the earth!" said Cortlandt.

"They would be trump cards," replied Bearwarden, "in a zoological

garden or a dime museum, and would take the wind out of the sails

of all the other freaks."

As they lay flat on the turtle's back, the monsters gazed at them

unconcernedly, munching the palm-tree fruit so loudly that they

could be heard a long distance.

"Having nothing to fear from a tortoise," resumed Cortlandt,

"they may allow us to stalk them. We are in their eyes like

hippocentaurs, except that we are part of a tortoise instead of

part of a horse, or else they take us for a parasite or fibrous

growth on the shell."

"They would not have much to fear from us as we really are,"

replied Bearwarden, "were it not for our explosive bullets."

"I am surprised," said Ayrault, "that graminivorous animals

should be so heavily armed as these, since there can be no great

struggle in obtaining their food."

"From the looks of their jaws," replied Cortlandt, "I should say

they are omnivorous, and would doubtless prefer meat to what they

are eating now. Something seems to have gone wrong with the

animal creation hereabouts to-day."

Their war-horse clanked along like a badly rusted machine,

approaching the dinosaurs obliquely. When only about fifty yards

intervened, as the hunters were preparing to aim, their attention

was diverted by a tremendous commotion in the woods on their left

and somewhat ahead. With the crunching of dead branches and

swaying of the trees, a drove of monsters made a hasty exit and

sped across the open valley. Some showed only the tops of their

backs above the long grass, while others shambled and leaped with

their heads nearly thirty feet above the ground. The dinosaurs

instantly dropped on all-fours and joined in the flight, though

at about half-minute intervals they rose on their hind legs and

for a few seconds ran erect. The drove passed about half a mile

before the travellers, and made straight for the woods opposite;

but hardly had the monsters been out of sight two minutes when

they reappeared, even more precipitately than before, and fled up

the valley in the same direction as the tortoise.

"The animals here," said Bearwarden, "behave as though they were

going to catch a train; only our friend beneath us seems superior

to haste."

"I would give a good deal to know," said Cortlandt, "what is

pursuing those giants, and whether it is identical or similar to

the mutilator of the mastodon. Nothing but abject terror could

make them run like that."

"I have a well-formed idea," said Bearwarden, "that a hunt is

going on, with no doubt two parties, one in the woods on either

side, and that the hunters may be on a scale commensurate with

that of their victims."

"If the excitement is caused by men," replied Cortlandt, "our

exploration may turn out to be a far more difficult undertaking

than we anticipated. But why, if there are men in those woods,

do they not show themselves?--for they could certainly keep pace

with the game more easily in the open than among the trees."

"Because," replied Bearwarden, "the men in the woods are

doubtless the beaters, whose duty it is to drive the game into

and up the valley, at the end of which the killing will be done."

"We may have a chance to see it," said Ayrault, "or to take a

hand, for we are travelling straight in that direction, and shall

be able to give a good account ourselves if our rights are

challenged."

"Why," asked Cortlandt, "if the hunting parties that have been in

our vicinity were only beaters, should they have mutilated the

mastodon in such it way that he could not walk? And how were

they able to take themselves off so quickly--for man in his

natural state has never been a fast mover? I repeat, it will

upset my theories if we find men."

It was obvious to them that tortoises were not much troubled by

the apparently general foe, for the specimen in which they were

just then interested continued his course entirely unconcerned.

Soon, however, he seemed to feel fatigue, for he drew his feet

and head within his shell, which he tightly closed, and after

that no poking or prodding had the desired effect.

"I suspect we must depend on shank's mares for a time," said

Bearwarden, cheerfully, as they scrambled down.

"We can now see," said Cortlandt, "why our friend was so

unconcerned, since he has but to draw himself within himself to

become invulnerable to anything short of a stroke of lightning;

for no bird could have power enough to raise and drop him from a

great height upon rocks, as the eagles do on earth."

"I suspect, if anxious for turtle soup," said Bearwarden, "we

must attach a lightning--rod, and wait for a thunderstorm to

electrocute him."

CHAPTER VIII.

SPORTSMEN'S REVERIES.

Feeling grateful to the huge tortoise for the good service he had

rendered, they shot a number of the great snakes that were

gliding about on the ground, and placed them where he would find

them on awaiting. They then picked their way carefully towards

stretches on which the grass was shortest. When they had gone

about two miles, and had already reached higher ground, they came

to a ridge of rock running at right angles to their course. This

they climbed, and on looking over the edge of the crest beheld a

sight that made their hearts stand still. A monster, somewhat

resembling an alligator, except that the back was arched, was

waddling about perhaps seventy- five yards from them. It was

sixty feet long, and to the top of its scales was at least

twenty-five feet high. It was constantly moving, and the

travellers noticed with some dismay that its motion was far more

rapid than they would have supposed it could be.

"It is also a dinosaur," said the professor, watching it sharply,

"and very closely resembles the Stegosaurus ungulatus restored in

the museums. The question is, What shall we do with the living

specimen, now that we have it?"

"Our chairman," said Ayrault, "must find a way to kill it, so

that we may examine it closely."

"The trouble is," said Bearwarden, "our bullets will explode

before they penetrate the scales. In the absence of any way of

making a passage for an explosive ball by means of a solid one,

we must strike a vital spot. His scales being no harder than the

trunk of a tree, we can wound him terribly by touching him

anywhere; but there is no object in doing this unless we can kill

him, especially as there is no deep stream, such as would have

delayed the mastodon in reaching us, to protect us here. We must

spread out so as to divert his attention from one to another."

After some consultation it was decided that Cortlandt, who had

only a shot-gun, should remain where they were, while Bearwarden

and Ayrault moved some distance to the right and left. At a

signal from Cortlandt, who was to attract the monster's

attention, the wings were to advance simultaneously. These

arrangements they carried out to the letter. When Bearwarden and

Ayrault had gone about twenty-five yards on either side, the

doctor imitated the peculiar grunting sound of an alligator, at

which the colossal monster turned and faced him, while Bearwarden