“Flash every light into their eyes,” Epworth shouted. “Blind them.”
Instantly a hundred flashes of steady crimson shot into the eyes of the ramphs, and their tails began to lash up and down on the gray floor. Their changing colors made this motion barely perceptible.
“Now let twenty chloroform guns shoot into their eyes and nostrils.”
The gas guns were long straight tubes that carried repeated shots of chloroform, and by the time the twenty guns had fired one shot each the twelve ramphs had dropped their heads.
One hundred men rushed forward, and began to thrust at the doped reptiles. Their thrusts were seemingly useless, the hard gristle of the lizards turning the spears easily. For a moment Epworth was nonplussed. They could chloroform the Things but how could they kill them?
“Stab them in their eyes!” he commanded sharply, stepping up to one of the monsters, which was over a hundred feet long, and jabbing his own weapon into the monster’s middle eye. “Perhaps that will get them.”
It did. The animal, stricken, doubled up suddenly, and lashed downward with its tail then quieted down. Epworth stepped over its immense leg, and looked into the chamber. What he saw caused him to draw back hastily.
He was looking into a large subterranean world alive with hideous Things. Thousands of them were slinking back against the floor, changing their color to suit the rugged rocks around them until they were almost invisible; others were standing on their rear feet gazing toward the entrance; others were fastened to the walls of the chamber with their fierce eyes glaring fire. The young American felt his blood run cold.
Would it be possible to wipe out this pest hole with his army of little children—small men who depended entirely on his leadership?
A little thought convinced him that it was imperative that they must take the ramphs by surprise. But the fact that there had been twelve reptiles at the entrance indicated that there was some sort of a military organization that knew the value of sentinels.
He glanced again into the chamber. This time he steeled himself to meet the horror. The monsters, while many of them had their heads lifted, had not discovered the presence of enemies.
Fearing that the flash lights might arouse them he ordered all lights closed, and made an investigation with his cavern lamps. In front of him the enormous chamber extended as far as the eye could reach, and the walls went up to a ceiling he knew was there but could not see. At the outer edge of his vision he could make out a pool of black water. The pool and the chamber were full of writhing, wriggling, monstrous reptiles. Old lizards, young lizards, male lizards, female lizards, baby lizards, lizards in all stages of growth, crawled like ants around the chamber and into the lake.