"Stand from under!"cried Bearwarden,stepping back."I,for one,should not care to be touched."The great soft mass came directly over the spot on which they had been standing,and stopped its descent about three feet from the ground,parallel to which it was slowly carried by the wind.Afew yards off,in the direction in which it was moving,lay a long black snake asleep on the sand.When directly over its victim the jelly globule again sank till it touched the middle of the reptile's back.The serpent immediately coiled itself in a knot,but was already dead.The jellyfish did not swallow,but completely surrounded its prey,and again rose in the air,with the snake's black body clearly visible within it.
"Our Will-o'-the-wisp is prettier by night than by day,"said Bearwarden."I suggest that we investigate this further.""How?"asked Cortlandt.
"By destroying its life,"replied Bearwarden."Give it one barrel from your gun,doctor,and see if it can then defy gravitation."Accordingly Cortlandt took careful aim at the object,about twenty-yards away,and fired.The main portion of the jellyfish,with the snake still in its embrace,sailed away,but many pounds of jelly fell to the ground.Most of this remained where it had fallen,but a few of the larger pieces showed a faint luminosity and rose again.
"You cannot kill that which is simply a mass of protoplasm,"said Cortlandt."Doubtless each of those pieces will form a new organism.This proves that there are ramifications and developments of life which we never dreamed of."CHAPTER VII.
AN UNSEEN HUNTER.
They calculated that they had come ten or twelve miles from the place at which they built the raft,while the damp salt breeze blowing from the south showed them they were near the ocean.
Concluding that large bodies of water must be very much alike on all planets,they decided to make for a range of hills due north and a few miles off,and to complete the circuit of the square in returning to the Callisto.The soft wet sand was covered with huge and curious tracks,doubtless made by creatures that had come to the stream during the night to drink,and they noticed with satisfaction as they set out that the fresher ones led off in the direction in which they were going.For practice,they blew off the heads of the boa-constrictors as they hung from the trees,and of the other huge snakes that moved along the ground,with explosive bullets,in every thicket through which they passed,knowing that the game,never having been shot at,would not take fright at the noise.Sometimes they came upon great masses of snakes,intertwined and coiled like worms;in these cases Cortlandt brought his gun into play,raking them with duck-shot to his heart's content."As the function of these reptiles,"he explained,"is to form a soil on which higher life may grow,we may as well help along their metamorphosis by artificial means."They were impressed by the tremendous cannon-like reports of their firearms,which they perceived at once resulted from the great density of the Jovian atmosphere.
And this was also a considerable aid to them in making muscular exertion,for it had just the reverse effect of rarefied mountain air,and they seldom had to expand their lungs fully in order to breathe.
The ground continued to be marked with very large footprints.
Often the impressions were those of a biped like some huge bird,except that occasionally the creature had put down one or both forefeet,and a thick tail had evidently dragged nearly all the time it walked erect.Presently,coming to something they had taken for a large flat rock,they were surprised to see it move.
It was about twelve feet wide by eighteen feet long,while its shell seemed at least a foot thick,and it was of course the largest turtle they had ever seen.
"Twenty-four people could dine at a table of this size with ease,"said Bearwarden,"while it would make soup for a regiment.
I wonder if it belongs to the snapping or diamond-backed species."At this juncture the monster again moved.
"As it is heading in our direction,"resumed Bearwarden,"I vote we strike for a free pass,"and,taking a run,he sprang with his spiked boots upon the turtle's shell and clambered upon the flat top,which was about six feet from the ground.He was quickly followed by Ayrault,who was not much ahead of Cortlandt,for,notwithstanding his fifty years,the professor was very spry.
The tortoise was almost the exact counterpart of the Glyptodon asper that formerly existed on earth,and shambled along at a jerky gait,about half as fast again as they could walk,and while it continued to go in their direction they were greatly pleased.They soon found that by dropping the butts of their rifles sharply and simultaneously on either side,just back of the head,they could direct their course,by making their steed swerve away from the stamping.
