The Opelousas courier., 1900-01-27

purchase with his feet, he managed to
tear of the horrid thing.
It struck me that, in the very
cramped position I was in, I should
be completely helpless if I stopped for
the stick (rather a difficult job with
out topping forward) and happened
to get another tentaole round my arm,
80 I let the stick go. Rolling over
into the water was out of the question,
for, as I have said, it was fully four
feet deep, and instead OF being fast by
the neck like the fisherman, and being
able to get q purchase on the bottom
for my fee.-if I went overheard it
would be q case of heels up and head
down.
Of course I tried to drag my foot
away, but as soon as I did SO the brute
whipped two more Shiny tentacles
round it, thus holding me with three
and yet leaving himself with five
others to moor himself fast with. Well,
| tugged and pulled away, aud poked
at the horrid teutaeles with the other
foot, keeping a sharp lookout not to
get it caught, too, for ever SO long;
but oil in vain, there was no shifting
them. For one thing, I could not ex-
ert much strength in the awkward
way I was standing, and I was really
frightened all the time of falling for
ward into the water. Every now and
then, ~slaekeaing up his mornings a
bit, the brute. would pop his hideous
body and wicked looking eyes above
the ledge, which by this time was be-
ginning to be covered by the rising
tide; but q movement Of the other foot
or the waving of my arms always made
him bob down again.
/ had been at this game fully half
an hour, jud sing by the rise of the
tide, and was having a spell, keeping
my feet as wide apart as possible. when
to my disgust l felt my left foot seized
in q similar way, by another and much
smaller octopus, but he was big
enough and strong enough, in my then
state, TO hold me hard aud fast. It is
firmly believed by our fishermen that
star-ish hunt in couples. / am in
clined to the same opinion now, though
! cannot vouch for its correctness.
Things began to look serious, though
! can safely say that at the time ( was
not seriously frightened. my principal
fear being that the horrid creatures
would commence to bite me. I take
no credit to myself for this, for it was
simply the result Of ignorance of the
danger I was in; for surely, though I
have had rather an eventful life, I was
never in more deadly peril. I kept
consoling myself with the thought
that at the highest the tide would not
reach farther mp than my waist, and
something was bound to happen be-
fore then.
In the meantime / kept on shouting
and cooey-ing for help. There wee
plenty Of gaps in the roof, where ii Q
rock slabs did not meet. Through
some of these the sun poured in his
brilliant rays, and through others I
could see mp the hillside, the g.een
trees rustling in the breeze, and show
ing up in sharp contrast against the
bright blue sky. This made me feel
really bad and want to get out all the
more.
E&} sE4
As the tide rose both star fish came
up bodily on to the ledge. IF only T
had had q knife or an ax@ Under
other circumstances il would have
been interesting to watch the method
ical manner in which the hideous
things moved themselves, loosing one
OF their mooring fe~ntacies at a time
land getting q firm hold with it before
bringing up another. / still managed
til keep them at bay by shouting, way-
ing my arms and jerking my legs as
much as I could. When Ibid so they
Molld shrink back and erect their
bodies, seeming to puff them out and
glare at me with their terrible eyes.
I am certain there is no other living
creature with SO devilish IN expression
in its eyes al an octopus. / had now
been held fast by both feet for q CON
siderable time--more than another
half-hour i connted-when / noticed
q movement among the seaweeds on
the fa- side of the great boulder in the
middle Of the pool, and after a while
Ifancied I saw something writing
about among them, but then again ali
was still. At frst it struck me as
being probably q large rock-eel.
Presently / saw 1t again rs ii flick
cred over the edge Of a rock, and this
time / knew with my first feeling
Of terror that it was no eel. but the
teDtacle Of . huge octopus, a regular
told man.
I had every opportunity OF examin-
ing the two star-tish that held me. and
I Judged the biggest one to have ten.
tacles from ~ inc es to 24incl es long
and t g other from Is inches to lis
inches; but this new monster ON the
far side Of the boulder must have had
tentacles over four feet long. I form
this estimate from long experience.
having killed and sees great numbers
Of these loaf some creatures since
then, The discovery Of this fresh
danger would have been . greater
shockto me if inst about the same
time I had not caught the sound 81
Charley's voice answering my shouts
When he got close 7 made him undar-