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 lay between two lily-pad islands, their huge shapeless heads and jagged black backs showing above the surface. Even more potently than the snakebirds these long armored dragons of the waters carried his mind back to the fantastic Ancient World—back and back, across ages and æons, to that remote and seemingly fabulous time when the giant reptiles of the dinosaur dynasty ruled the earth. For this reason, despite their hideousness, he found delight in the big saurians also; and because those rugged, plated, sinister heads protruding from the dark water were an essential part of the outlandish magic of the lagoon, he looked for them always when he came to the egret town.

He was watching the motionless, seemingly lifeless 'gators when above them and farther to the left he saw Sanute the wood ibis sail into view over the tree-tops and come to rest on a dead cypress standing well out of the water. Marston recognized the big bird at once. He had known Sanute too well and too long to make any mistake; and he wondered what obscure chance had caused the ibis chief to return to the mainland for his midday Siesta instead of resorting as usual to the barrier island woods. He watched the big bird dispose himself comfortably on a limb of the dead cypress, unmindful of the transitory excitement of the egrets and herons who had their homes nearby; then Mar-