“Telling myself that I had been a fool to allow the cry of the savages to startle me, I commenced to retrace my steps. I had covered perhaps a mile, certainly not more, when, rounding a monstrous boulder, I came plump upon those fellows”—and he pointed to the beach again.
“They were squatting in an angle of the rock, eagerly tearing at a carcase of some sort. For the moment they did not notice me, and I was hoping to get past unobserved, when, as luck would have it, I kicked against a stone. In a flash the brutes were up and after me. Thinking to escape them amid the fungi, I plunged into the jungle. I ran as I had never run before, but I could not shake them off. The beasts seemed absolutely tireless.
“I had almost given up hope when I heard the reports of your rifle. The sounds gave me fresh strength, and I dashed furiously on until I emerged yonder. The rest you know.”
Garth rose as he finished his story, and glanced out through the glass.
Then a startling cry burst from him.
“Great Heaven! Look there, Tom!”
Wilson turned quickly.
Through the ghostly twilight, a cable’s length astern, loomed the monstrous form and vast, glaring orbs of the great fish-lizard.