I landed, stiff enough as you will guess, but pleased to be on shoreagain. It was a melancholy neighbourhood of low islands, overgrownwith rank grass and bushes, salt water encircling them, and inside sandydunes and hummocks with shallow pools, gleaming ghostly in theretreating daylight, while beyond these rose the black bosses of whatlooked like a forest. Thither I made my way, plunging uncomfortablythrough shallows, and tripping over blackened branches which, lying justbelow the surface, quivered like snakes as the evening breeze ruffled eachsurface, until the ground hardened under foot, and presently I was standing,hungry and faint but safe, on dry land again.

　　The forest was so close to the sea, one could not advance withoutentering it, and once within its dark arcades every way looked equallygloomy and hopeless. I struggled through tangles night made more andmore impenetrable each min- ute, until presently I could go no further, andwhere a dense canopy of trees overhead gave out for a minute on the edgeof a swampy hollow, I determined to wait for daylight.

　　Never was there a more wet or weary traveller, or one moredesperately lonely than he who wrapped himself up in the miserableinsufficiency of his wet rags, and without fire or supper crept amongst theexposed roots of a tree growing out of a bank, and prepared to hope grimlyfor morning.

　　Round and round meanwhile was drawn the close screen of night, tillthe clearing in front was blotted out, and only the tree-tops, black asrugged hills one behind the other, stood out against the heavy purple of thecirclet of sky above. As the evening deepened the quaintest noises beganon every hand--noises so strange and bewildering that as I cowered downwith my teeth chattering, and stared hard into the impenetrable, they couldbe likened to nothing but the crying of all the souls of dead things sincethe beginning. Never was there such an infernal chorus as that whichplayed up the Martian stars. Down there in front, where hummock grasswas growing, some beast squeaked contin- uously, till I shouted at him,then he stopped a minute, and began again in entirely another note.

　　Away on the hills two rival monsters were calling to each other in tones sohollow they seemed as I listened to penetrate through me, and echo out ofmy heart again. Far overhead, gigantic bats were flitting, the shadow oftheir wings dimming a dozen universes at once, and crying to each other inshrill tones that rent the air like tearing silk.

　　As I listened to those vampires discussing their infernal loves underthe stars, from a branch right overhead broke such a deathly howl from thethroat of a wandering forest cat that everything else was hushed for amoment. All about a myriad insects were making night giddy with theirghostly fires, while underground and from the labyrinths of mat- ted rootscame quaint sounds of rustling snakes and forest pigs, and all the lesserthings that dig and scratch and growl.

　　Yet I was desperately sleepy, my sword hung heavy as lead at my side,my eyelids drooped, and so at last I dozed uneasily for an hour or two.

　　Then, all on a sudden, I came wide awake with a shock. The night wasquieter now; away in the forest depth strange noises still arose, but close athand was a strange hush, like the hush of expecta- tion, and, listeningwonderingly, I was aware of slow, heavy footsteps coming up from theriver, now two or three steps together, then a pause, then another step ortwo, and as I bent towards the approaching thing, staring into the darkness, my strained senses were conscious of another approach, as like ascould be, coming from behind me. On they came, making the veryground quake with their weight, till I judged that both were about on theedge of the clearing, two vast rat-like shadows, but as big as elephants,and bringing a most intolerable smell of sour slime with them. There, onthe edge of the amphitheatre, each for the first time ap- peared to becomeaware of the other's presence--the foot- steps stopped dead. I could hearthe water dripping from the fur of those giant brutes amongst the shadowsand the deep breathing of the one nearest me, a scanty ten paces off, butnot another sound in the stillness.

　　Minute after minute passed, yet neither moved. A half- hour grew toa full hour, and that hour lengthened amid the keenest tension till my earsached with listening, and my eyes were sore with straining into theblackness. At last I began to wonder whether those earth-shaking beasts  had not been an evil dream, and was just venturing to stretch out acramped leg, and rally myself upon my cowardice, when, without warning,at my elbow rose the most ear- piercing scream of rage that ever camefrom a living throat. There was a sweeping rush in the darkness which Icould feel but not see, and with a shock the two gladiators met in the midstof the arena. Over and over they went screaming and struggling, andslipping and plunging. I could hear them tearing at each other, and thesharp cries of pain, first one and then another gave as claw or tooth gothome, and all the time, though the ground was quaking under theirstruggles and the air full of horrible uproar, not a thing was to be seen. Idid not even know what manner of beasts they were who rocked androlled and tore at each other's throats, but I heard their teeth snapping, andtheir fierce breath in the pauses of the struggle, and could but wait in ahuddle amongst the roots until it was over. To and fro they went, now atthe far side of the dark clearing, now so close that hot drops of blood fromtheir jaws fell on my face like rain in the darkness. It seemed as thoughthe fight would never end, but presently there was more of worrying in itand less of snapping; it was clear one or the other had had enough and as Imarked this those black shad- ows came gasping and struggling towardsme. There was a sudden sharp cry, a desperate final tussle--before whichstrong trees snapped and bushes were flattened out like grass, not twentyyards away--and then for a minute all was silent.

　　One of them had killed, and as I sat rooted to the spot I was forced tolisten while his enemy tore him up and ate him. Many a banquet have Ibeen at, but never an uglier one than that. I sat in the darkness while theunknown thing at my feet ripped the flesh from his half-dead rival in strips,and across the damp night wind came the reek of that abominable feast-the reek of blood and spilt en- trails--until I turned away my face inloathing, and was nearly starting to my feet to venture a rush into theforest shadows. But I was spellbound, and remained listening to theheavy munch of blood-stained jaws until presently I was aware other andlesser feasters were coming. There was a twinkle of hungry eyes allabout the limits of the area, the shine of green points of envious fire thatcircled round in decreasing orbits, as the little foxes and jackals came  crowding in. One fellow took me for a rock, so still I sat, putting his hot,soft paws upon my knee for a space, and others passed me so near I couldall but touch them.

　　The big beast had taken himself off by this time, and there must havebeen several hundreds of these newcomers. A merry time they had of it;the whole place was full of the green, hurrying eyes, and amidst the snapof teeth and yapping and quarrelling I could hear the flesh being torn fromthe red bones in every direction. One wolf-like individual brought amass of hot liver to eat between my feet, but I gave him a kick, and senthim away much to his surprise. Gradually, however, the sound of thisunholy feast died away, and, though you may hardly believe it, I fell offinto a doze. It was not sleep, but it served the purpose, and when in anhour or two a draught of cool air roused me, I awoke, feeling more myselfagain.

　　Slowly morning came, and the black wall of forest around became fullof purple interstices as the east brightened. Those glimmers of lightbetween bough and trunk turned to yellow and red, the day-shine presentlystretched like a canopy from point to point of the treetops on either side ofmy sleeping-place, and I arose.

　　All my limbs were stiff with cold, my veins emptied by hunger andwounds, and for a space I had not even strength to move. But a littlerubbing softened my cramped muscles presently and limping painfullydown to the place of combat, I surveyed the traces of that midnight fight.

　　I will not dwell upon it. It was ugly and grim; the trampled grass, thegiant footmarks, each enringing its pool of cur- dled blood; the brokenbushes, the grooved mud-slides where the unknown brutes had slid indeadly embrace; the hollows, the splintered boughs, their ragged pointstufted with skin and hair--all was sickening to me. Yet so hungry was Ithat when I turned towards the odious remnants of the vanquished--ashapeless mass of abomination--my thou- ghts flew at once to breakfasting!

　　I went down and in- spected the victim cautiously--a huge rat-like beast asfar as might be judged from the bare uprising ribs--all that was left of himlooking like the framework of a schooner yacht. His heart lay amongstthe offal, and my knife came out to cut a meal from it, but I could not do it.

　　Three times I essayed the task, hunger and disgust contending for mastery;three times turned back in loathing. At last I could stand the sight nomore, and, slamming the knife up again, turned on my heels, and fairly ranfor fresh air a............