“We must protect the entrance,” Epworth urged. “The second a lizard starts into it we must get him, and keep the door open for our companions to come in. Fire obliquely with your chloroform guns.”
He had hardly ceased speaking when the battle began.
One who has seen a lizard dart up the trunk of a tree can form an idea of the incredible swiftness of these great monsters. Before Epworth was aware a huge Thing dropped from the ceiling in front of him with a shrill siren call to its companions. Its eyes were flaming red; its mouth was foaming; its split tongue, protruding in evil menacing, twisted to and fro swiftly. It came with such awful quickness that Epworth was paralyzed for a second.
Joan saved him.
With remarkable calmness she extended her long light chloroform tube, and squirted the gas into the reptile’s snorting nostrils. It sent out a flaming, overpowering smoke, snorted fearfully, and toppled over immediately in front of Epworth, who jumped back hastily against the wall, and thrust his sharp spear into its eye. Then with a little gasp of horror he grabbed Joan and dropped down behind the animal’s body, making it a fortress against another attack. Thus protected the two began to use their dope guns with deadly effect. Their example was followed by the soldiers under their command.
In the meantime Billy and Moawha, who were leading the attack on the opposite side of the entrance, were having an experience very similar, although Billy dropped the first reptile quicker than Epworth had done, and protected his men with greater ease.
In a short time the lizards were piled up around the entrance for several hundred yards, and were climbing over each other in a vain attempt to get to the soldiers. This enabled the Selinites to run out of the narrow corridor and join their companions, thus pushing the tide of battle back on the lizards, and piling them high around. While many of the Selinites were hurt, in two hours the entire army was inside of the Chamber of Horrors, and the battle was won.
Soon the great chamber was full of chlorine gas, and the ramphs were choking, snorting, snapping death (without knowing where it came from) while the Selinites were protected by their gas masks. Now Epworth commanded a company of soldiers to circle around the place, find the tunnel on the other side that led to the Cricket World, and bar it up with stones in order to keep the gas inside of the ramph chamber.
When this was accomplished the reptiles were driven from the walls and floors into the lake of black water. This lake, Epworth found out, was several miles long and over a mile wide but the water was shallow, and proved of little aid to the lizards. When the reptiles stuck their heads under the water they gained some respite but not understanding what was troubling them they lifted their heads immediately, again to be caught by the breath of chloroform. Then they sank never to rise.
When the dope had cleaned them out, the Selinites calmly plunged their spears into their eyes.