had seen literally thousands of these denizens of the river,
indicating that the chances were very remote that this was the
same Plesiosaur. "And anyway," he concluded, "it was only a
scheme of Mr. Olson's to get all the steaks for himself."

We discussed the future and ventured opinions as to what lay
before us; but we could only theorize at best, for none of
us knew. If the whole land was infested by these and similar
horrid monsters, life would be impossible upon it, and we decided
that we would only search long enough to find and take aboard fresh
water and such meat and fruits as might be safely procurable and
then retrace our way beneath the cliffs to the open sea.

And so at last we turned into our narrow bunks, hopeful, happy
and at peace with ourselves, our lives and our God, to awaken the
following morning refreshed and still optimistic. We had an easy
time getting away--as we learned later, because the saurians do
not commence to feed until late in the morning. From noon to
midnight their curve of activity is at its height, while from
dawn to about nine o'clock it is lowest. As a matter of fact, we
didn't see one of them all the time we were getting under way,
though I had the cannon raised to the deck and manned against
an assault. I hoped, but I was none too sure, that shells might
discourage them. The trees were full of monkeys of all sizes and
shades, and once we thought we saw a manlike creature watching us
from the depth of the forest.

Shortly after we resumed our course upstream, we saw the mouth of
another and smaller river emptying into the main channel from the
south--that is, upon our right; and almost immediately after we