Wilson nodded.
“Well,” Hilton continued, “we soon decided that the only course open to us was to follow the trail of the Triceratops, on the chance of Mervyn being pitched off the brute’s back. We had just started when, close at hand, came a chorus of howls, as though a whole menagerie of wolves were upon our track. Turning, we made for the valley again. Seymour got safely in, but I tripped over a fungus and fell; something caught me a crack on the head, and for a time I knew no more.
“I came to with a splitting headache, and for a long time I could remember nothing of the preceding events, so great was the pain of my head. As my brain grew clearer, memory came back to me, and the incidents of the last few hours flashed through my mind in a long procession. Then, for the first time, I became aware of the fact that I was being carried. Jolly good of Seymour, I thought, to cart me along like this. I opened my eyes dreamily. Imagine my horror, if you can, when I discovered that it was not Seymour who was carrying me, but one of those Things!” Garth indicated the motionless forms which still lay as they had fallen upon the beach.
“The creature bore me in its arms as easily as though I were a child,” he went on, “and for some moments I felt too dazed by the discovery of my terrible position to do aught but lie still. Then a thought came to me that, if the creature were alone, I might manage to escape from his grip. Vain hope! I gazed about me, only to find that a few paces ahead were a dozen more of the brutes, who appeared to be following a trail of some sort. I could see by the deep depressions in the clayey ground that it was the trail of the Triceratops, but for what reason they should follow the monstrous brute I could not imagine—until I remembered Mervyn. Then I perceived their motive.
“Sure enough, before we had gone much farther, the foremost of the trackers set up a howl. The rest, and among them my bearer, hurried forward. Beside the track, unconscious, with a great wound on his temple, lay the professor. Picking him up, one of the brutes slung him roughly over his shoulder; and the whole band set forward again at a rapid trot. The rest of the journey seemed to me like some terrible nightmare, with only one impression standing out clear in my mind, and that was the hideous forms of the Things that flitted, spectre-like, before me.
“But all things have an end, and this journey was no exception to the rule. Ere long the creatures pulled up on the brink of a ravine, from the depths of which arose a sound of a mighty torrent. Above this chasm hung a frail hide bridge, and I shuddered as I became aware that my captors were preparing to cross.
“Gripping Mervyn more firmly, the creature who carried him stepped upon the swaying ropes. Luckily, the professor was still unconscious, or I do not doubt he would have made some hasty action, the result of which would have been disastrous in the extreme. I marvelled how the creature, burdened as he was, kept his precarious balance, but he managed it somehow, and at length laid down his captive upon the farther side of the gorge, while he awaited the crossing of his fellows.
“Then came my turn. My bearer advanced to the head of the bridge, and had already placed one foot upon it, when, wildly furious at the appalling prospect before me, I writhed out of his arms. For an instant I had some mad hope of making a run for it, but before I could take a step the brute had me again. Recklessly I struggled, determined that I would not be taken across that abyss, to meet a terrible death at the hands of these wolfish creatures. Far rather leap into the depths, and perish in the dark waters below!
“But the creature had a grip like a Polar bear. Struggle as I would, I could not again escape from his arms, and, at length, with my ribs almost cracking beneath the strain, I ceased my efforts and lay passive. With a hideous chuckle, which made me long to shoot him, he raised me again, and began the passage of the bridge. Still as death I lay until he had almost reached the centre. Then, when his grip was somewhat relaxed, and all his efforts were centred upon keeping his balance, I kicked out strongly. The sudden move, as I had intended it should, completely destroyed our equilibrium. The bridge seemed to sway from beneath us, and we hurtled into space.
“I remember my captor relaxing his grip of my body to make a desperate clutch at the swinging ropes; a terrible fall which appeared almost endless in duration; the roaring of many waters; then came a shock, which knocked me senseless for the second time since leaving the boat. But I am wearying you with my yarn?”