Doc Renny vs Pterodactyl

"What the--" Then Renny knew what it was. One of the flying reptiles! A pterodactyl--one of the horrors which had disabled their plane!

Wildly, Renny flung up his gun.

But before he could pull the trigger, the gruesome marauder was upon him!

RENNY now got one of the few pleasant surprises of the night. He realized this aërial, batlike thing was much smaller than the one which had assailed the plane. Probably it was a chick of the species!

Evading the snapping, toothed beak, Renny clutched with his powerful hands. He got fistfuls of the revolting, membranous wings. The stuff felt like rubber. It was clammy. And a noisome stench accompanied the reptile.

The beak crunched. It took off the entire back of Renny's coat!

Grasping again, Renny secured a hold on the fearsome head. The body of this pterodactyl was about the size of an ostrich's. Renny put forth a superhuman effort, tossing himself about violently. He succeeded at last in what he was trying to do. He wrung the neck of the flying reptile!

But the thing did not die immediately! It whipped about, as tenacious of life as the tail of a snake. But Renny had at least stopped its attack. The slow death meant the creature scarcely had a definite brain center. Possibly it depended on its brain so little that it could even go on living for a time with that organ entirely removed!

"What a place this is!" Renny muttered.

- The Land of Terror (1933) Chapter 17