“Horrible!” returned the scientist with a shudder. “The brute’s far worse than Triceratops, for it’s a wholly carnivorous feeder.” “I assume we were down on its bill of fare, then?” asked the Yankee, moving forward to examine the carcase, at which the hounds were still tearing. “Nothing would come amiss to the brute,” Mervyn assented, producing his note-book and pencil. “H’m,” Haverly remarked, as he surveyed the dead monster, “a fairish-sized sort of tadpole. Fifty foot from nose to tail, and perhaps a bit over. Say, William, come and have a look at your uncle. You an’ Wilson are mighty quiet over there.” “I’ve seen as much of the brute as I want,” Seymour replied as he joined the American. “If there’s many more of his sort in the jungle, some of us will lose the numbers of our mess before long.” “He’s done us out of our weapons, anyway,” growled Silas; “there’s no heaving him over to pull ’em out. After all, a spear’s kinder handy if you prick ’em in the right place. Sort of touches the spot, you know.” “What’s to be the next move?” asked the engineer. “Wal, I guess this outfit’s earned a rest. The present ’ud be a suitable occasion for a feed. Mervyn’s got enough to keep him on the trot for a while, an’ we might as well improve the passing hour. William, perhaps you’ll oblige by informing Chenobi as it’s dinner-time.” Smiling at Haverly’s quaint speech, the baronet complied with his request; and there, but a few yards from the carcase of the megalosaurus, the explorers made a hearty meal. The Ayuti, despite the loss of his hound, was in high spirits. He had never dreamt that they should be able to slay the monster, his only motive in entering the quarry being to escape the notice of the brute if possible; but, having scented them, the saurian invaded their refuge, with the result already recorded. But for Muswani, the affair would have had a vastly different ending! For the greater part of two hours they rested, the professor obtaining from Chenobi a whole budget of information respecting the quarry. He learnt, among other things, that at one time a great stone causeway had connected the quarry with the subterranean city, along which the blocks had been conveyed on stone trucks. By the gradual sinking of the swampy ground, over which it was laid, the causeway had been engulfed, and now not a vestige remained. Gladly would Mervyn have remained longer in the quarry, amid the relics of a dead race, but his comrades were anxious to move on, and so, giving way to their desires, he prepared to leave the spot which had so nearly proved the scene of their destruction. “It’s a bit risky without weapons,” Haverly said, as they plunged once more into the jungle, “but I guess we’ll have to manage. ‘Tread lightly’s’ the word, and keep your weather eyes lifting for beetles.”