Chapter 11…The Beasts of Paradise
The great beast looked at us for a while and then reached up and pulled down a tree limb with a funny three-clawed hand and began eating the leaves.
We would have breathed a sigh of relief if any of us had been breathing at the moment. At least, the animal hadn’t charged us.
Under cover of the noise from its chomping jaws, Doc Tom said, “I think it’s a Megatherium.”
“A what?” Pete muttered.
“A Meg-uh-THEER-ee-um,” Doc Tom sounded it out carefully. “Non-carnivorous. A plant eater.”
“It looks like a bear,” I whispered.
“Actually it’s of the sloth family. An ancestor of the creatures that hang upside down in trees.”
“Helpless and harmless, then.”
“Comparatively harmless, but not quite helpless. It can be a tough customer when it’s aroused.”
“Then le
