However Chenobi could find his way amid the tangled growths of the jungle the adventurers could not imagine. He had no compass to consult, and he had not the light of the heavenly bodies by which to steer. Yet he never hesitated for one moment, guiding his antlered steed as though perfectly familiar with the route. Mervyn, perched behind him, pored over his notes, and several times came within an ace of being swept from his seat by the branching arms of the fungi giants on either side, the Ayuti avoiding these by bending low over his mount. The journey seemed terribly long to the three on foot. The glistening monotony of the eternal fungi wearied their eyes. Talk, save in whispers, they dared not, lest they should rouse another of the jungle beasts, perhaps even more terrible than the megalosaurus. Their entirely unarmed condition made them apprehensive almost to fearfulness. But, for all the sound that reached them, the whole underworld might have been without inhabitant. Suddenly Chenobi checked his steed, raising his hand as a warning to his friends. Wondering what new peril threatened, the three moved cautiously alongside the elk. Parting the fungi, they peered through. Before them lay a clearing--an open space of some sixty square yards in area. At first sight it appeared to be empty, but in a few seconds they became aware of the presence of a monstrous black shape, sharply outlined against the glistening wall of the encircling jungle. Ere they could observe more, the hounds, who had been trailing at heel, burst into a savage bay, and broke through the fungi. Only a glimpse the explorers had of a huge, hairy body which lumbered awkwardly into the shelter of the jungle, with the hounds snarling at its heels, but it sufficed for the professor. “Megatherium!” he yelled in amazement, “the giant sloth!” With a bound he leapt from his seat and darted across the clearing; but sloth and hounds had already vanished, the latter in full cry. “Call your brutes off,” Mervyn cried to the king, as he forced his steed into the clearing; “the creature’s perfectly harmless, and it seems a shame for the dogs to worry it.” A piercing call rang from the Ayuti’s lips, the baying ceased as though by magic, and ere long the hounds slid out of the undergrowth, panting from their fruitless chase. “It is unfortunate that the creature disappeared so quickly,” muttered the scientist. “I had not time to make a proper observation, but its presence here appears to me to imply that the monsters of prehistoric days are far from extinct. Were we to make a thorough search, I do not doubt that we should find representatives of all the tribes of vast creatures which once inhabited the upper world.” “Except the birds,” retorted Seymour; “as yet we have seen no trace of them, which seems rather remarkable since, according to Maori tradition, the moa birds were existent in New Zealand up to the end of the seventeenth century.”