Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-01-30

tuey were pubucO OUTSIDE. some ga
these bales or cases would float and
some would rest lightly on the bottom.
had selected q large case, which /
was about to move, when, happening
to turn my eyes, saw outside huge
creature moving toward the vessel
had never seen anything like it be-
fore. Its body was four to Eve feet
high and about twice that length, and
it had ON each side an enormous arm.
There seemed to be an unlimited num-
Der of legs attached to the hideous
creature. It's color was a dun brown,
round, black, shining eyes were in its
forehead, and two supple horns, each
resent bling an enormous whip, like
wise came out of its head All this 1
noticed with one glance. A numb ter
ror seized me, and moved for the out
let from the ship.
But as if knowing what l intended
this brute, looking straight at me with
its frightful eyes, walked, or rather
crawled, directly toward me. 1 hurried
in the hope of being able to seize the
hanging hook, now my only means of
signaling the sliff; but it hurried, too,
and had barely put my foot upon =
rock outside VIXEN the two writhing
horns of the detestable creature wers
twining about me and again untwin-
ing. Then he would touch me with
these and sweep them up and down, as
if feeling what description of prey
was. The round, frightful eyes seemed
to burn through and through me. In
my hand ! held the crowbar which
used to loosen the cargo; in my belt
carried heavy sheath knife. These
were my only weapons.
Suddenly and without any warni ng
the monster threw out one of its arms
and seized me below the shoulder l
felt as if my bones were being crushed
and that my arm would soon be sew
cred from my body. No sooner had he
done this than he turned and began to
drag me into a deeper corner of the
nook. The more l resisted the more
terrible was the pain, so had to go,
turning over in my mind what should
do. l still had the crow bar in my right
hand, but it was of no use to me. So
let it drop.
But the horror of that time! Well,
knew why the awful thing was drag
ging ING to this quiet place. He was
going to devour me.
His arm terminated in a claw which
opened and shut. This horrible mouth
like thing had two rows of shining
white teeth. Several of these were
piercing my arm to the bone. Scue
distance above this uputhlike hand |
observed joint, aud then ] drew my
knife. But alas! the heavy shell so
overlappcd the dcshy tissue that |
could not ipjure my captor. Still he
dragged me on, on till at last the deep
aCf T.tn Of f1n
There he stopped and turned those ter
rifying eyes again upon me. The whip
like arms began to move and curl
about my body, and hideous motion
seemed to run through the body of the
terrible fish. What this meant l knew
Ills head was only about foot dis
tant from my body, and drawing my
knife again l plunged it into the eve
nearest me, turning the blade round
and round. I saw that had destroyed
the eye, for an inky fluid issued out of
the sock ct, darkenirg the water about
its head. This checked the aggressive
movements of the thing, but did not
seem to hurt it. l waited, waited for
many seconds, think, and then its
head turned, so / supposed. that it
might be enabled to see it's prey. This
was what / wanted, and with sure,
swift thrust l sent my knife into his
other eye, down to the heft This time
it must have touched the brain, for the
beast reeled, and the grip on my arm
slightly relaxed. But though totally
blind my captor had no idea of releas-
ing me.
''The agony of my arm soon grew I'M
bearable and the waters around me
I