Edgar Rice Burroughs

Out of Time's Abyss Edgar Rice Burroughs

This is the tale of Bradley after he left Fort Dinosaur upon the west coast of the great lake that isin the center of the island. Upon the fourth day of September, 1916, he set out with four companions, Sinclair, Brady, James, and Tippet, to search along the base of the barrier cliffs for a point at which they might bescaled. Through the heavy Caspakian air, beneath the swollen sun, the five men marched northwestfrom Fort Dinosaur, now waist-deep in lush, jungle grasses starred with myriad gorgeous blooms, now across open meadow-land and parklike expanses and again plunging into dense forests ofeucalyptus and acacia and giant arboreous ferns with feathered fronds waving gently a hundred feetabove their heads. About them upon the ground, among the trees and in the air over them moved and swung andsoared the countless forms of Caspak's teeming life. Always were they menaced by some frightfulthing and seldom were their rifles cool, yet even in the brief time they had dwelt upon Caprona theyhad become callous to danger, so that they swung along laughing and chatting like soldiers on asummer hike."This reminds me of South Clark Street," remarked Brady, who had once served on the trafficsquad in Chicago; and as no one asked him why, he volunteered that it was "because it's no place foran Irishman.""South Clark Street and heaven have something in common, then," suggested Sinclair. Jamesand Tippet laughed, and then a hideous growl broke from a dense thicket ahead and diverted theirattention to other matters."One of them behemoths of 'Oly Writ," muttered Tippet as they came to a halt and with gunsready awaited the almost inevitable charge."Hungry lot o' beggars, these," said Bradley; "always trying to eat everything they see."For a moment no further sound came from the thicket. "He may be feeding now," suggestedBradley. "We'll try to go around him. Can't waste ammunition. Won't last forever. Follow me." Andhe set off at right angles to their former course, hoping to avert a charge. They had taken a dozensteps, perhaps, when the thicket moved to the advance of the thing within it, the leafy branchesparted, and the hideous head of a gigantic bear emerged."Pick your trees," whispered Bradley. "Can't waste ammunition."The men looked about them. The bear took a couple of steps forward, still growling menacingl