| CHAPTER I | CHAPTER II | CHAPTER III | CHAPTER IV | CHAPTER V |
This is the tale of Bradley after he left Fort Dinosaur upon the westcoast of the great lake that is in the center of the island.
Upon the fourth day of September, 1916, he set out with fourcompanions, Sinclair, Brady, James, and Tippet, to search along thebase of the barrier cliffs for a point at which they might be scaled.
Through the heavy Caspakian air, beneath the swollen sun, the five menmarched northwest from Fort Dinosaur, now waist-deep in lush, junglegrasses starred with myriad gorgeous blooms, now across openmeadow-land and parklike expanses and again plunging into dense forestsof eucalyptus and acacia and giant arboreous ferns with featheredfronds waving gently a hundred feet above their heads.
About them upon the ground, among the trees and in the air over themmoved and swung and soared the countless forms of Caspak's teeminglife. Always were they menaced by some frightful thing and seldom weretheir rifles cool, yet even in the brief time they had dwelt uponCaprona they had become callous to danger, so that they swung alonglaughing and chatting like soldiers on a summer hike.
"This reminds me of South Clark Street," remarked Brady, who had onceserved on the traffic squad in Chicago; and as no one asked him why, hevolunteered that it was "because it's no place for an Irishman."
"South Clark Street and heaven have something in common, then,"suggested Sinclair. James and Tippet laughed, and then a hideous growlbroke from a dense thicket ahead and diverted their attention to othermatters.
"One of them behemoths of 'Oly Writ," muttered Tippet as they came to ahalt and with guns ready awaited the almost inevitable charge.
"Hungry lot o' beggars, these," said Bradley; "always trying to eateverything they see."
For a moment no further sound came from the thicket. "He may befeeding now," suggested Bradley. "We'll try to go around him. Can'twaste ammunition. Won't last forever. Follow me." And he set off atright angles to their former course, hoping to avert a charge. Theyhad taken a dozen steps, perhaps, when the thicket moved to the advanceo