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- Артур Конан Дойл
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The
openings
were
about
eighty
feet
above
the
ground
,
and
were
led
up
to
by
long
stone
stairs
,
so
narrow
and
steep
that
no
large
animal
could
mount
them
.
Inside
they
were
warm
and
dry
,
running
in
straight
passages
of
varying
length
into
the
side
of
the
hill
,
with
smooth
gray
walls
decorated
with
many
excellent
pictures
done
with
charred
sticks
and
representing
the
various
animals
of
the
plateau
.
If
every
living
thing
were
swept
from
the
country
the
future
explorer
would
find
upon
the
walls
of
these
caves
ample
evidence
of
the
strange
fauna
--
the
dinosaurs
,
iguanodons
,
and
fish
lizards
--
which
had
lived
so
recently
upon
earth
.
Since
we
had
learned
that
the
huge
iguanodons
were
kept
as
tame
herds
by
their
owners
,
and
were
simply
walking
meat-stores
,
we
had
conceived
that
man
,
even
with
his
primitive
weapons
,
had
established
his
ascendancy
upon
the
plateau
.
We
were
soon
to
discover
that
it
was
not
so
,
and
that
he
was
still
there
upon
tolerance
.
It
was
on
the
third
day
after
our
forming
our
camp
near
the
Indian
caves
that
the
tragedy
occurred
.
Challenger
and
Summerlee
had
gone
off
together
that
day
to
the
lake
where
some
of
the
natives
,
under
their
direction
,
were
engaged
in
harpooning
specimens
of
the
great
lizards
.
Lord
John
and
I
had
remained
in
our
camp
,
while
a
number
of
the
Indians
were
scattered
about
upon
the
grassy
slope
in
front
of
the
caves
engaged
in
different
ways
.
Suddenly
there
was
a
shrill
cry
of
alarm
,
with
the
word
"
Stoa
"
resounding
from
a
hundred
tongues
.
From
every
side
men
,
women
,
and
children
were
rushing
wildly
for
shelter
,
swarming
up
the
staircases
and
into
the
caves
in
a
mad
stampede
.
Looking
up
,
we
could
see
them
waving
their
arms
from
the
rocks
above
and
beckoning
to
us
to
join
them
in
their
refuge
.
We
had
both
seized
our
magazine
rifles
and
ran
out
to
see
what
the
danger
could
be
.
Suddenly
from
the
near
belt
of
trees
there
broke
forth
a
group
of
twelve
or
fifteen
Indians
,
running
for
their
lives
,
and
at
their
very
heels
two
of
those
frightful
monsters
which
had
disturbed
our
camp
and
pursued
me
upon
my
solitary
journey
.
In
shape
they
were
like
horrible
toads
,
and
moved
in
a
succession
of
springs
,
but
in
size
they
were
of
an
incredible
bulk
,
larger
than
the
largest
elephant
.
We
had
never
before
seen
them
save
at
night
,
and
indeed
they
are
nocturnal
animals
save
when
disturbed
in
their
lairs
,
as
these
had
been
.
We
now
stood
amazed
at
the
sight
,
for
their
blotched
and
warty
skins
were
of
a
curious
fish-like
iridescence
,
and
the
sunlight
struck
them
with
an
ever-varying
rainbow
bloom
as
they
moved
.
We
had
little
time
to
watch
them
,
however
,
for
in
an
instant
they
had
overtaken
the
fugitives
and
were
making
a
dire
slaughter
among
them
.
Their
method
was
to
fall
forward
with
their
full
weight
upon
each
in
turn
,
leaving
him
crushed
and
mangled
,
to
bound
on
after
the
others
.
The
wretched
Indians
screamed
with
terror
,
but
were
helpless
,
run
as
they
would
,
before
the
relentless
purpose
and
horrible
activity
of
these
monstrous
creatures
.
One
after
another
they
went
down
,
and
there
were
not
half-a-dozen
surviving
by
the
time
my
companion
and
I
could
come
to
their
help
.
But
our
aid
was
of
little
avail
and
only
involved
us
in
the
same
peril
.
At
the
range
of
a
couple
of
hundred
yards
we
emptied
our
magazines
,
firing
bullet
after
bullet
into
the
beasts
,
but
with
no
more
effect
than
if
we
were
pelting
them
with
pellets
of
paper
.
Their
slow
reptilian
natures
cared
nothing
for
wounds
,
and
the
springs
of
their
lives
,
with
no
special
brain
center
but
scattered
throughout
their
spinal
cords
,
could
not
be
tapped
by
any
modern
weapons
.
The
most
that
we
could
do
was
to
check
their
progress
by
distracting
their
attention
with
the
flash
and
roar
of
our
guns
,
and
so
to
give
both
the
natives
and
ourselves
time
to
reach
the
steps
which
led
to
safety
.
But
where
the
conical
explosive
bullets
of
the
twentieth
century
were
of
no
avail
,
the
poisoned
arrows
of
the
natives
,
dipped
in
the
juice
of
strophanthus
and
steeped
afterwards
in
decayed
carrion
,
could
succeed
.
Such
arrows
were
of
little
avail
to
the
hunter
who
attacked
the
beast
,
because
their
action
in
that
torpid
circulation
was
slow
,
and
before
its
powers
failed
it
could
certainly
overtake
and
slay
its
assailant
.
But
now
,
as
the
two
monsters
hounded
us
to
the
very
foot
of
the
stairs
,
a
drift
of
darts
came
whistling
from
every
chink
in
the
cliff
above
them
.
In
a
minute
they
were
feathered
with
them
,
and
yet
with
no
sign
of
pain
they
clawed
and
slobbered
with
impotent
rage
at
the
steps
which
would
lead
them
to
their
victims
,
mounting
clumsily
up
for
a
few
yards
and
then
sliding
down
again
to
the
ground
.
But
at
last
the
poison
worked
.
One
of
them
gave
a
deep
rumbling
groan
and
dropped
his
huge
squat
head
on
to
the
earth
.
The
other
bounded
round
in
an
eccentric
circle
with
shrill
,
wailing
cries
,
and
then
lying
down
writhed
in
agony
for
some
minutes
before
it
also
stiffened
and
lay
still
.
With
yells
of
triumph
the
Indians
came
flocking
down
from
their
caves
and
danced
a
frenzied
dance
of
victory
round
the
dead
bodies
,
in
mad
joy
that
two
more
of
the
most
dangerous
of
all
their
enemies
had
been
slain
.
That
night
they
cut
up
and
removed
the
bodies
,
not
to
eat
--
for
the
poison
was
still
active
--
but
lest
they
should
breed
a
pestilence
.
The
great
reptilian
hearts
,
however
,
each
as
large
as
a
cushion
,
still
lay
there
,
beating
slowly
and
steadily
,
with
a
gentle
rise
and
fall
,
in
horrible
independent
life
.
It
was
only
upon
the
third
day
that
the
ganglia
ran
down
and
the
dreadful
things
were
still
.
Some
day
,
when
I
have
a
better
desk
than
a
meat-tin
and
more
helpful
tools
than
a
worn
stub
of
pencil
and
a
last
,
tattered
note-book
,
I
will
write
some
fuller
account
of
the
Accala
Indians
--
of
our
life
amongst
them
,
and
of
the
glimpses
which
we
had
of
the
strange
conditions
of
wondrous
Maple
White
Land
.
Memory
,
at
least
,
will
never
fail
me
,
for
so
long
as
the
breath
of
life
is
in
me
,
every
hour
and
every
action
of
that
period
will
stand
out
as
hard
and
clear
as
do
the
first
strange
happenings
of
our
childhood
.
No
new
impressions
could
efface
those
which
are
so
deeply
cut
.
When
the
time
comes
I
will
describe
that
wondrous
moonlit
night
upon
the
great
lake
when
a
young
ichthyosaurus
--
a
strange
creature
,
half
seal
,
half
fish
,
to
look
at
,
with
bone-covered
eyes
on
each
side
of
his
snout
,
and
a
third
eye
fixed
upon
the
top
of
his
head
--
was
entangled
in
an
Indian
net
,
and
nearly
upset
our
canoe
before
we
towed
it
ashore
;
the
same
night
that
a
green
water-snake
shot
out
from
the
rushes
and
carried
off
in
its
coils
the
steersman
of
Challenger
's
canoe
.
I
will
tell
,
too
,
of
the
great
nocturnal
white
thing
--
to
this
day
we
do
not
know
whether
it
was
beast
or
reptile
--
which
lived
in
a
vile
swamp
to
the
east
of
the
lake
,
and
flitted
about
with
a
faint
phosphorescent
glimmer
in
the
darkness
.
The
Indians
were
so
terrified
at
it
that
they
would
not
go
near
the
place
,
and
,
though
we
twice
made
expeditions
and
saw
it
each
time
,
we
could
not
make
our
way
through
the
deep
marsh
in
which
it
lived
.
I
can
only
say
that
it
seemed
to
be
larger
than
a
cow
and
had
the
strangest
musky
odor
.
I
will
tell
also
of
the
huge
bird
which
chased
Challenger
to
the
shelter
of
the
rocks
one
day
--
a
great
running
bird
,
far
taller
than
an
ostrich
,
with
a
vulture-like
neck
and
cruel
head
which
made
it
a
walking
death
.
