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Chapter 2
I'll never forget my first impressions of Caspak as I circled in, high over the
surrounding cliffs. From the plane I looked down through a mist upon the
blurred landscape beneath me. The hot, humid atmosphere of Caspak condenses
as it is fanned by the cold Antarctic air-currents which sweep across the crater's
top, sending a tenuous ribbon of vapor far out across the Pacific. Through this
the picture gave one the suggestion of a colossal impressionistic canvas in greens
and browns and scarlets and yellows surrounding the deep blue of the inland
sea--just blobs of color taking form through the tumbling mist.
I dived close to the cliffs and skirted them for several miles without finding the
least indication of a suitable landing-place; and then I swung back at a lower
level, looking for a clearing close to the bottom of the mighty escarpment; but I
could find none of sufficient area to insure safety. I was flying pretty low by this
time, not only looking for landing places but watching the myriad life beneath me.
I was down pretty well toward the south end of the island, where an arm of the
lake reaches far inland, and I could see the surface of the water literally black
with creatures of some sort. I was too far up to recognize individuals, but the
general impression was of a vast army of amphibious monsters. The land was
almost equally alive with crawling, leaping, running, flying things. It was one of
the latter which nearly did for me while my attention was fixed upon the weird
scene below.
The first intimation I had of it was the sudden blotting out of the sunlight from
above, and as I glanced quickly up, I saw a most terrific creature swooping down
upon me. It must have been fully eighty feet long from the end of its long,
hideous beak to the tip of its thick, short tail, with an equal spread of wings. It
was coming straight for me and hissing frightfully--I could hear it above the whir
of the propeller. It was coming straight down toward the muzzle of the machine-
gun and I let it have it right in the breast; but still it came for me, so that I had to
dive and turn, though I was dangerously close to earth.
The thing didn't miss me by a dozen feet, and when I rose, it wheeled and
followed me, but only to the cooler air close to the level of the cliff-tops; there it
turned again and dropped. Something--man's natural love of battle and the
chase, I presume--impelled me to pursue it, and so I too circled and dived. The
moment I came down into the warm atmosphere of Caspak, the creature came for
me again, rising above me so that it might swoop down upon me. Nothing could
better have suited my armament, since my machine-gun was pointed upward at
an angle of about 45 degrees and could not be either depressed or elevated by
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