Amazing Stories — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

aa? 2 ~ 66 AMAZING STORIES . over a fall, and wondered what caused it. A little later, I noticed that the floatsam was drifting toward the north end of the lake. This was odd, since there was no current and, curious to learn why, I started in the same direction. Soon the muffled sound be- came louder. It was coming from the lake! Puzzled for a moment, like a flash the explanation came to me and I started north on the run. “T soon reached the place where the noise came from—a great rent at the end of the basin in which the lake lay. I looked toward the mound, or, rather, toward the place where the mound had been, for it was there no longer, and if I had been in doubt as to what had caused the rent, I was soon in possession of full knowledge. That unearthly crash had been caused by the explosion of those fifteen cases of nitro-glycerine, and there may have been more buried in the sand, when a streak of lightning found its way into the pit in which they were. “The rocky floor of the pit must have been a sort of pot cover, over the subterranean cavern, or caverns, and the force of the explosion had torn it away rending the rocks and earth into a great tear, extending through the wall which held the lake. It had done even more; it tore out the wall between it and the reservoir, for I found, upon going around the chasm to the dam, that the water was rapidly lowering. While I stood there, amazed at the force of the charge, a large block of conerete from the end of the dam nearest me, broke loose and fell with a splash, into water. Evidently, I thought, the whole dam was being undermined and was liable, at any moment, to fall. I made haste to get away from the place, and I acted wisely, for within ten minutes the whole enormous structure of concrete crumbled and fell; a part of it going completely out of sight in the hole in the bed of the reservoir, while the rest went in the opposite direction. “Tt was apparent, since the chasm was enlarging momentarily, that it would not take long to empty both reservoir and lake and, being minded to see the finish, I went back to a point of safety, on the east- ern shore, sat down ona rock and waited for the end. 66CITTING there, wondering into what profound depths the waters of the lake and reservoir were plunging, speculating upon the possible truth of some tales I had read concerning people discovered living in a ‘World Beneath a World,’ I forgot, for a time, what was taking place before my eyes. “T was aroused from my reverie by a snort, and coming back to actualities, I looked to see what had produced it. There was the great lizard, from whose throat it had emanated, not fifty yards before me. “At last I saw the monster, and monster it truly was. My powers of description are far too limited to adequately describe that monster. Its body, at | least the upper part, was fully exposed. Swan-like in shape, it appeared to be nearly sixty feet from the point where the neck joined the body, to the end of its tail, which resembled, in a way, the tail of a duck. This body, armed or equipped with flappers, similar to those of a seal, but enormously larger, was a greenish black and was covered with what might have been, the slime and ooze of ages. Its neck, flexible as that of the swan, was fully two feet in diameter at its base, tapering slowly to the head, ‘ight feet from the body. The head was a com- vs he 3 ‘ He Ke) wv} in | Ps ew. o- posite of the crocodile and the tyrannosaurus, but much larger, with loosely articulated jaws, permit- ting of tremendous extension, as is the case with certain snakes. The mouth, armed with teeth fully six inches in length, was at least three feet long from the snout to the angle of the jaws. To add to its frightfulness, the upper canine teeth, or fangs, curved outward and downward over the lower jaw, and were, as near as I could judge, at least ten inches long. A more horrible creature I couldn't imagine, and I wondered whether it might be a member of some species that had never been cata- logued, or whether it was what it appeared to be, a hybrid. I think it was the latter and, since it was the only one that had come into the light of modern times, I also wondered if the thing could have begun its existence away back there in the mesozoic era. It seemed impossible, and yet, who knows. At any rate it certainly looked ancient enough to have been born long before creation began. Doubtless, I thought, there were others like it, somewhere, for it seemed unlikely that only one specimen would have been caught in one of the cataclysms of those an- cient days. But, whether or not I was right, can never be told. “Apparently the lizard was terrified at something ; probably at the idea of being sucked into the chasm, into which tle water was pouring, for it was mak- ing violent efforts to draw away from that end of the lake. It was a losing game, however, for the suck of the water, powerful as was the reptile, was too strong and, thresh the water as it might, and did, it was slowly being drawn back.* Whatever else might be said of the lizard, it was no coward, for, realizing the fact that it was a losing game, it stud- denly turned and, with a terrific bellow, using its flippers to accentuate its speed, in a sort of ‘devil daring spurt,’ it drove head-long into the vortex. “During the day the waters continued to enlarge the chasm and, by night the lake had nearly vanished, as had also the reservoir. “The following morning the city engineers were out, and as well as I could, I explained what had hap- pened. As it chanced, I did most of my talking to the man who had supervised the construction of the reservoir, and was therefore the only one who knew about the nitro-glycerine. I realized that my knowl- edge of its presence in the pit caused him some worry, and he explained that he had given orders for its removal, but they evidently had been forgotten or disregarded by the workmen, so I told him I would not mention the matter to anyone, for which he seemed very grateful. Since it could have done no good to tell-about it then, I deemed it best to forget about the matter. “But I mentioned the lizard to no one. I ex- plained the disappearance of Wilson, by telling them that he had fallen into the lake, from a rowboat, _ ' while trying to drive back to the shore a cow that had gone into the water. That also was the story I told the lawyers who settled up the estate. “As soon as possible I gathered up my traps and -came back to the city. I have tried to forget the experience, for it was far from pleasant, but this story in the paper brought it up again and, I repeat, I shall not be surprised to read that those men have aS found some hold-over from the mesozoic era, for I = believe there are specimens still alive. Why not? —