to the ground once more, and with each failure he cast a horrified
glance over his shoulder at the oncoming brute, simultaneously
emitting terror-stricken shrieks that awoke the echoes of the grim
forest.

At length he spied a dangling creeper about the bigness of one's
wrist, and when I reached the trees he was racing madly up it, hand
over hand. He had almost reached the lowest branch of the tree
from which the creeper depended when the thing parted beneath his
weight and he fell sprawling at my feet.

The misfortune now was no longer amusing, for the beast was already
too close to us for comfort. Seizing Perry by the shoulder I dragged
him to his feet, and rushing to a smaller tree--one that he could
easily encircle with his arms and legs--I boosted him as far up
as I could, and then left him to his fate, for a glance over my
shoulder revealed the awful beast almost upon me.

It was the great size of the thing alone that saved me. Its
enormous bulk rendered it too slow upon its feet to cope with the
agility of my young muscles, and so I was enabled to dodge out of
its way and run completely behind it before its slow wits could
direct it in pursuit.

The few seconds of grace that this gave me found me safely lodged
in the branches of a tree a few paces from that in which Perry had
at last found a haven.

Did I say safely lodged? At the time I thought we were quite safe,
and so did Perry. He was praying--raising his voice in thanksgiving