And then from the inky blackness at my right I saw two flaming eyes
glaring into mine. They were on a level that was over two feet above
my head. It is true that the beast who owned them might be standing
upon a ledge within the cave, or that it might be rearing up upon its
hind legs; but I had seen enough of the monsters of Pellucidar to know
that I might be facing some new and frightful Titan whose dimensions
and ferocity eclipsed those of any I had seen before.
Whatever it was, it was coming slowly toward the entrance of the cave,
and now, deep and forbidding, it uttered a low and ominous growl. I
waited no longer to dispute possession of the ledge with the thing
which owned that voice. The noise had not been loud--I doubt if the
Sagoths heard it at all--but the suggestion of latent possibilities
behind it was such that I knew it would only emanate from a gigantic
and ferocious beast.
As I backed along the ledge I soon was past the mouth of the cave,
where I no longer could see those fearful flaming eyes, but an instant
later I caught sight of the fiendish face of a Sagoth as it warily
advanced beyond the cliff's turn on the far side of the cave's mouth.
As the fellow saw me he leaped along the ledge in pursuit, and after
him came as many of his companions as could crowd upon each other's
heels. At the same time the beast emerged from the cave, so that he
and the Sagoths came face to face upon that narrow ledge.
The thing was an enormous cave bear, rearing its colossal bulk fully
eight feet at the shoulder, while from the tip of its nose to the end
of its stubby tail it was fully twelve feet in length. As it sighted
the Sagoths it emitted a most frightful roar, and with open mouth
charged full upon them. With a cry of terror the foremost gorilla-man
turned to escape, but behind him he ran full upon his on-rushing
companions.
The horror of the following seconds is indescribable. The Sagoth
nearest the cave bear, finding his escape blocked, turned and leaped
deliberately to an awful death upon the jagged rocks three hundred feet
below. Then those giant jaws reached out and gathered in the
next--there was a sickening sound of crushing bones, and the mangled
corpse was dropped over the cliff's edge. Nor did the mighty beast
even pause in his steady advance along the ledge.
Shrieking Sagoths were now leaping madly over the precipice to escape
him, and the last I saw he rounded the turn still pursuing the
demoralized remnant of the man hunters. For a long time I could hear
the horrid roaring of the brute intermingled with the screams and
shrieks of his victims, until finally the awful sounds dwindled and
disappeared in the distance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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