Unit 3.13, exercise 6A, page 96.0:01
Lord John held up his hand as a signal us to stop and he made his way quickly to the line of rocks.0:29
We saw him peep over them and give a gesture of amazement.0:37
Then he stood, staring, as if forgetting us so completely.0:42
Entranced was he by what he saw.0:47
Finally he waved us to come on, holding up his hand for us to be careful.0:50
His whole manner made me feel that something wonderful but dangerous lay before us.0:56
Creeping to his side, we looked over the rocks.1:04
The place into which we gazed was a pit and may in the early days have been a volcano.1:08
It was rounded and at the bottom were pools of green, dirty, stagnant water.1:15
It was an unusual place in itself, but what lived there was even stranger.1:22
The place was a large nest of pterodactyls.1:30
There were hundreds of them.1:34
All the bottom area around the water edge were young pterodactyls and the hideous mothers were guarding their yellowish eggs.1:36
From this crowd of reptiles came a strange odor which made us feel sick.1:47
But above each, upon its own stone, tall, grey and withered, sat the horrible males.1:54
Challenger, bent on proving some point which Summerlee had disagreed with, thrust his head over the rock and by doing so, nearly killed us all in an instant.2:04
The nearest male gave a whistling cry and flapped its leathery wings as it soared up into the air.2:15
The females and young ones huddled together beside the water while the whole circle of males rose one after the other and sailed off into the sky.2:23
It was a wonderful sight to see at least a hundred creatures of such enormous size and hideous appearance, all swooping like swallows above us.2:34
But soon we realised that we could not afford to linger.2:44
At first, the great beasts flew round in a huge ring as if to see what the danger might be.2:49
Then the group got lower and the circle narrower until they were whizzing round and round us, the dry flap of their huge wings filling the air with a terrifying sound.2:56
Make for the woods and keep together.3:08
Cried Lord John, grabbing a stick.3:11
The brutes mean mischief.3:14
The moment we attempted to move, the circle closed in upon us.3:17
Some of the wings were nearly touching our faces.3:22
We beat at them with sticks, but we couldn't hit them.3:25
Then suddenly, out of the whizzing circle, a long neck shot out and a fierce beak made a thrust at us.3:29
Another and another followed.3:37
Summerlee gave a cry and put his hand to his face.3:40
I felt a prod at the back of my neck and felt dizzy with the shock.3:44
Challenger fell and as I tried to pick him up I was again struck from behind and dropped on top of him.3:49
At the same instant I heard an awful cry as Lord John swung his stick and I saw one of the creatures with a broken wing struggling on the ground.3:56
Its friends had flown higher at the sudden sound and were circling above our heads.4:08
We staggered forwards to the woods and even as we reached the trees the beasts were on us again.4:14
Summerlee was knocked down but we pulled him up and rushed among the trunks.4:21
Once there we were safe, for those huge wings had no space to move beneath the branches as we struggled homewards, attacked and uneasy, we saw them for a long time flying very high above our heads.4:26
They were soaring round and round, looking no bigger than pigeons with their eyes still following us.4:40
At last, however, as we reached the thicker woods they gave up the chase and we saw them no more.4:48
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