Most striking of its characteristics was the double row of huge, horny plates standing on edge down its back. These looked like two lines of monster saw teeth.
The name of the thing stegosaur escaped Renny. Anyway, what interested him at the moment was its reaction to the fire. Would it flee?
It didnt!
Renny realized the colossal reptile did not have the brains to recognize the fire as danger. Pivoting, he ran with all his speed.
Ferns whipped him. The needled tips of coniferous shrubs gouged at his eyes. Lianas held him back. He tore at the growth with his powerful hands. Suddenly, penetrating that jungle became like burrowing through a stack of green, wet hay.
Behind him thundered the leviathan of the reptilian world. It seemed to gain as though he were standing still. Great knots of the soggy earth, dug up by its churning feet, fell noisily.
Renny had been in few tighter spots in his eventful life. He could not outrun this thing. In the darkness, he could not hide effectively it would smell him out.
It was now no more than twice Rennys own length behind him!
And Renny stumbled and fell!
That fall was his salvation. A deep trench had brought him down. Evidently it had been opened by the snout of some tremendous rooting dinosaur.
Renny rolled into the trench!
The pursuing reptile passed over him! It was as though an earthquake had laid upon the surrounding ground. The earth walls of the trench gave under the vast weight. They caved.
Renny was buried by the earth!
He was drawing in a breath of relief when the cave-in came. So he had a quantity of air in his lungs. He held it there. Not a muscle did he move.
The clumsy reptile turned slowly and came back. The stupid thing did not know what had become of its quarry. It tramped the vicinity for a time, searching.
Earth pressed in more tightly as it strode somewhere near Renny.
The big-fisted engineer had held his breath about as long as he could. His lungs felt lead-filled. His ears sang.
The giant dinosaur lumbered majestically away. It had given up. The earth covering Renny had kept the reptile from scenting him.
In a near frenzy, such torture was he suffering, Renny squirmed about. He threshed in the soft earth. For a moment he thought he was entombed alive. But the convulsive effort this belief made him put forth, brought him near the surface.
His head came out into the warm, damp, crater air.
A ferocious bedlam of snarling and growling greeted him.
Sharp teeth sank into his body!
Chapter 18. WHERE TIME STOPPED
MEANWHILE, Doc and his men stood before the charge of the giant creodont, not knowing what strange thing would happen next.
The thing sprang for Monk. It missed, thanks to Monks great leap to one side. Monks machine gun hosed a stream of bullets into the side of the animal. This gave them an instant respite. The huge creature turned to bite itself where the bullets had hit, as though it had been jabbed there by thorns.
The beast was a fierce, deadly killer, even though it did look like a combination of weasel, dog and bear, with possibly a little long-haired elephant for good measure.
"Beat it, the rest of you!" Monk rapped. "Maybe I can delay the thing long enough for you to reach safety!"
Monk made a move to step in the path of the charging animal. He was willing to sacrifice himself, if only it would help his friends. This looked like the only thing that would save them.
"Wait!" Docs strong bronze hand stopped Monk.
"But Doc " Monk started to object.
"Dry up you homely ape!" Doc was actually chuckling in the face of the frightful danger! His tone was calm. His movements, although lightninglike, seemed unhurried.
"Lets have your tobacco, Monk!" Docs hand suddenly possessed the can of smoking tobacco. So swiftly had it been taken that Monk hardly saw the gesture.
"Now pick em up and lay em down!" Docs powerful arm propelled Monk in the direction of the nearest tree large enough to furnish safety.
"Good good luck, Doc!" Monk muttered. Then he sprinted away at full speed. Monk didnt see how even Docs sovereign powers could prevail over this prehistoric monster.
Emitting a loud, fierce noise, a combined bark and squeal and snarl, the hybrid behemoth sprang.
Docs sinewy fingers had tweaked open the tobacco tin. In a trice, he had the tobacco clutched, half in either palm. He sprang forward to oppose the giant beast. His arms moved nimbly.
An effective pinch of the tobacco was jammed into each of the things little eyes. The rest went into its nostrils.
A swipe of a huge paw laid open Docs coat and shirt. But the metallic skin was hardly touched. Docs speed was nearly unbelievable.
Springing away, Doc raced for safety.
The prehistoric beast, blinded by the tobacco, its organs of smell temporarily ineffective for the same reason, could only bound about and release its blood-curdling growls.
Doc joined his friends up a massive fern.
"Afraid youll be without tobacco now," he told Monk.
Monk grinned admiringly. "I been thinkin about quittin smokin anyway."
Through a lacelike design of vines and branches, they could see the antics of the monster they had just escaped, thanks to Docs ingenuity and marvelous physique. The thing was alternately pawing at its smarting eyes and ramming its repulsive muzzle into the moist, soft earth.
"There it goes!" Long Tom emitted a sigh of relief as the beast decided to run. It volleyed away with a great uproar.
"Wonder how Oliver Wording Bittman is making out?" Johnny puzzled. "We havent heard a bleat from that tree where we left him."
"Probably so scared hes lost his voice," said the sharp-tongued Ham.
Doc came to Bittmans defense. "Youve got to admit he has something to be scared of. Personally, its my duty to take care of the man, craven coward though he may become. He saved my fathers life."
"Sure," said the big-hearted Monk. "Bittmans nerve was O. K. until we hit this fantastic crater. In fact, it was a continuous source of wonder to me to see how anxious he was to be with us every time we made a move. Remember how be went with us when we tackled Kar? That took nerve. Maybe his courage will return when he gets used to this strange place if its possible to get used to it."
MONK, it seemed, was right.
Oliver Wording Bittman slid down from his fern-tree perch as they approached. His features were pale, but his big jaw was thrust out in a determined fashion. He fiddled with the skinning scalpel which still decorated his watch chain.
"I am ashamed of my cowardly performance during the night," he said, embarrassed. "I guess I am not a brave man. At any rate, my courage completely departed at sight of this ghastly world. But I think I have it back, at least in part."
"No one could be blamed for becoming shaky at sight of such an unbelievable, terrifying place," Doc smiled.
"Yeah itd give anybody the jitters!" Monk grinned.
Johnny was using the magnifying lens on the left side of his glasses to inspect unusual plants.
"The more I see of this place, the more astounding it becomes," he declared. "Notice there are few flowering plants or trees of the type which shed their leaves."
"Evolution practically stopped in this crater many ages ago," Doc offered.
Johnny began to wax eloquent. "No doubt this was once part of some land continent, probably the Asiatic. The prehistoric animal life entered and were trapped here in some manner "
"Trapped how?" Monk grunted.
It was some little time before this question was answered. They moved forward, seeking more open ground. They found it upon a knoll from which an extensive view could be obtained.
"Golly!" muttered Monk, as he gazed at the frowning heights of the crater rim. "We must be at sea level, or below. This crater looks like it was bettern ten thousand feet deep!"