Amazing Stories — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Burdened by the heavy load, the reptile flew heavily, just clearing the treetops. He had gone ~ about a hundred feet, when a mighty head was up- - reared over the tree tops, mighty jaws yawned cav- ernously, and the great bird-lizard and its prey were crunched together in the grinding jaws of the flesh- eater, . _ Having finished his repast, Cayna set forth again to see what new adventure the day would bring him. He did not have to look far. Out into a small clearing stepped an animal which resembled a living Gibraltar. It traveled on all fours, but its hind limbs were four times as long as the forelegs, so that its nose almost touched the ground. It stood sixteen feet high at the thighs, was covered with hard, bony, plates, except on the underbody, forming an impenetrable armor. From the base of the head, over the back, and halfway down its tail, was a succession of bony plates in double columns, and varying in height from a couple of inches to three feet, each razor-sharp at the edges, and coming to a sharp point at the top. The head was very small, and triangular in shape, with small eyes, and a mouth that cleft back past its eyes. Its monstrous tail was its one means of offense or de- _ fense. Enormous at the base, (fully ten feet in _ diameter,) it tapered gradually for its whole length of twenty-five feet, and ended in a very blunt tip. Where the bony, finlike, plates had ended in the middle of the tail, a series of four pairs of extremely f* « . ‘ _ sharp, conical, spikes, of about two feet in length, — began. When the stegosaurus lashed out with this spiked tail, it would produce the same result, as if you hit a person with a board through which a series of nails had been driven. - This, then, was the monster upon which the flesh- eating tyrannosaurus looked. Ordinarily, in the presence of other, and more easily conquered game, he would have passed the stegosaurus by, for the “Plated Lizard” was regarded by the other dinosaurs in the same way as the present animals regard a porcupine. But Cayna was in no mood to pass any- thing by with which he might do battle. So, with a mighty roar, he charged the armored dinosaur, lashing out at the other’s head with one of his smaller forelegs, But the stegosaurus had antici- ___ pated the movement, and had drawn its head inside its armor, like a mud-turtle, and the blow only scraped the impenetrable plates on its neck. F: - Thus they jockeyed around for some moments, the tyrannosaurus always being careful to keep at __ the other’s head end, out of reach of the destroying tail, and the stegosaurus endeavoring to wheel and strike a bone-crushing blow with his spiked appendage. But the old king had not survived many fierce battles by sheer luck. He resorted to strategy. triking a slow, hesitating blow toward the other’s _ concealed head, he induced the sluggish giant to _ Strike at it. This it did, and when its head was fully _ out, the wily monarch lashed out, carrying away the RS sent side, and one eye, of the “plated dinosaur’s” - face. Screaming in amazement, the great stegosaurus _ reared up on its hind legs, It was the opening for which Cayna had been waiting. Leaping forward, he sized the other’s neck with both forep > be 4 : on, supporting himself with his tai acteristic of a AMAZING STORIES The great tail of the stegosaurus lashed convulsively for a few seconds, then was still, and the flesh-eater dined well. AVING satisfied his hunger, but not his blood lust, Cayna went forth again, until he arrived at a rather small plain. Nearby, alongside a great boulder, was a huge bull triceratops, snorting and pawing the earth savagely. He was evidently an outcast from a vast herd which could be seen in the distance, stretching as far as eye could reach, count- less thousands. The triceratops was about eleven feet tall at the thigh, where, like the stegosaurus, he was the tall- est. However, his forelegs were not nearly so short, in comparison to the hind legs, as were the stego- saurus’. He was, also like the stegosaurus, covered with hard bony plates or knobs, which served him as armor. He also possessed a bony frill about his neck, which gave him the appearance of a Roman gladiator. He had, characteristic of a dinosaur, a great tail, enormous at the base, and tapering gradually. Three horns and a parrot-like beak com- pletes his description. One horn over the nose, was about a foot and a half in length, and the other two, one over each eye, four or five feet in length. And all three were of needle-like sharpness. A monster worthy of the gigantic Cayna’s best efforts. Charging, with a roar, out into the open, the tyrannosaurus leaped upon the “three-horns” back, endeavoring to sink his giant fangs through the im- penetrable armor. But his efforts were unavailing. The triceratops, with an impatient shake of its mighty frame, hurled the tyrannosaurus from its insecure hold, up against the great boulder. Then, whirling rapidly, it sank its shorter nose-horn its full length into the tyrannosaurus. The old monarch, in desperation, seized the other two great horns of the triceratops in his smaller fore- paws, and forcing the great head down, thus origi- nated a hold which rendered the other helpless. The triceratops, bellowing insanely, continued to gore and slit the tyrannosaurus’ flesh to ribbons, with his nose horn and parrot-like beak, but was unable to inflict a fatal wound. But in spite of his terrible punishment, the tyrannosaurus continued to force the great head downward; and finally it touched the ground. Then, screaming in triumph, he sank his great fangs into the now unprotected neck, crunching it until he severed the spinal column, and the horned giant fell dead at his feet. But the old king had not escaped unscathed, and he was bleeding from a score of wounds, so, no sooner was his adversary dead, than he hurried away to a little pool he knew of, to lick and bathe his wounds. He was chastened in body, but not in spirit, and his two previous battles had only caused the flame of his blood lust to burn more brightly. After perhaps an hour of bathing and licking his wounds, Cayna ventured forth once more, coming finally to a pebbled beach by the great sea water. He found a gigantic brontosaurus basking at full length tpon it. Of all the colossal dinosaurs, there were none so huge as the brontosaurus, excepting the diplodocus, a creature greatly resembling him. _A great monster, about seventy-five feet long, standing sixteen feet at the thigh (where, a char- dinosaur, it stood the tallest),