Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/74

362 numerous during the tertiary period which gave them birth, were without color and without per- fume, something like paper discolored by long ex- posure to the atmosphere. A Herd of Mastodons FY uncle ventured beneath the gigantic groves. I I followed him, though not without a certain _i.amount of apprehension. Since nature had shown herself capable of producing such stupendous vegetable productions, why might we not meet with animals as large, and therefore dangerous. Suddenly I stopped short and restrained my uncle. The extreme diffuseness of the light en- abled me to see the smallest objects in the distant copse. I thought I saw — no, I really did see with my own eyes,— immense, gigantic animals moving about under the mighty trees. Yes, they were truly gigantic animals, a whole herd of mastodons, not fossils, but living. Yes, I could see these enormous elephants, whose trunks were tearing down large boughs, and work- ing in and out the trees like a legion of serpents. I could hear the sounds of the mighty tusks up- rooting huge trees! The boughs crackled, and whole masses of leaves and green branches went down the capacious throats of these terrible mon- sters ! That wondrous dream, when I saw the ante-his- torical times revivified, when the tetiary and quart- ernary periods passed before me, was now realized ! And there we were alone, far down in the bowels of the earth, at the mercy of its ferocious inhabi- tants! My uncle paused, full of wonder and astonish- ment. "Come," he said at last, when hia first sur- prise was over, "come along, my boy, and let us see them nearer." "No," replied I, restraining his efforts to drag me forward, "we are wholly without arms. What should we do in the midst of that flock of gigantic quadrupeds? Come away, uncle, I implore you. No human creature can with impunity brave the feroc- ious anger of these monsters." "No human creature," said my uncle, suddenly lowering his voice to a mysterious whisper, "you are mistaken my dear Harry. Look! look yonder! It seems to me that I behold a human being — a be- ing like ourselves — a man !" A Dream of Prehistoric Ages I LOOKED, shrugging my shoulders, and decided to push incredulity to its very last limits. But whatever might have been my wish, I was com- pelled to yield to the weight of ocular demonstration. Yes — not more than a quarter of a mile off, leaning against the trunk of an enormous tree, was a hu- man being — a Proteus of these subterranean re- gions, a new son of Neptune keeping this innumer- able herd of mastodons. ImTtianis pecoris cu3tos, immanior ipse! (The keeper of gigantic cattle, him- self a giant!) Yes — it was no longer a fossil whose corpse we had raised from the ground in the great cemetery, but a giant capable of guiding and driv- ing these prodigious monsters. His height was above twelve feet. His head, as big as the head of a buffalo, was lost in a mane of matted hair. It was indeed a huge mane, like those which belonged to the elephants of the earlier ages of the world. In his hand was a branch of a tree, which served as a crook for this antediluvian shepherd. We remained profoundly still, speechless with surprise. But we might at any moment be seen by him. Nothing remained for us but instant flight. "Come, come!" I cried, dragging my uncle along; and, for the first time, he made no resistance to my wishes. A quarter of an hour later we were far away from that terrible monster! Now that I think of the matter calmly, and reflect upon it dispassionately; now that months, years, have passed since this strange and unnatural adventure befell us— what am I to think, what am I to believe? No, it is utterly impossible! Our ears must have deceived us, and our eyes have cheated us ! we have not seen what we believed we had seen. No hu- man being could by any possibility have existed in that subterranean world! No generation of men could inhabit the lower caverns of the globe with- out taking note of those who peopled the surface, without communication with them. It was folly, folly, folly ! nothing else ! I am rather inclined to admit the existence of some animal resembling in structure the human race — of some monkey of the first geological epochs, like that discovered by M. Lartet in the os- siferous deposits of Sansan. But this animal, or being, whichsoever it was, surpassed in height all things known to modern science. Never mind. However unlikely it may be, it might have been' a monkey — but a man, a living man, and with him ai whole generation of gigantic animals, buried in the entrails of the earth — it was too monstrous to be believed ! CHAPTER XXXVII The Mysterious Dagger DURING this time, we had left the bright arid transparent forest far behind us. We were mute with astonishment, overcome by a kind of feeling which wa3 next door to apathy. We kept running in spite of ourselves. It was a per- fect flight, which resembled one of those horrible sensations we sometimes meet with in our dreams. Instinctively we made our way towards the Cen- tral Sea, and I cannot now tell what wild thoughts passed through my mind, nor of what follies I might have been guilty, but for a very serious pre- occupation which brought me back to practical life. Though I was aware that we were treading on a soil quite new to us, I, every now and then noticed certain aggregation of rock, the shape of which forcibly reminded me of those near Port Gretchen. This confirmed, moreover, the indications of the compass and our extraordinary and unlooked-for, as well as involuntary, return to the north of thisj great Central Sea. It was so like our starting point, that I could scarcely doubt the reality of our posi- tion. Streams and cascades, fell in hundreds over the numerous projections of the rocks. I actually thought I could see our faithful and monotonous Hans and the wonderful grotto in which I have come back to life after my tremendous!, fall. ■-'