The Opelousas courier., 1902-06-14

JIC11 u A4Ol1oA Aoh5ASAS ~
water above them till the bright sill
yer is in oxidized whorls. AS soon as
a pulpu has circled himself into str1k-
ing distance q bunch of hooks is slid
under him, and one fine Italian TWIST
n jerk does his business before he
knows what's killed him.
"And they're not slaughtered wan
tonly, either, but the pot and oven,
like any other fish. Although l was
naturally rather stand-ofish about
them at first, after I'd tasted them
boiled in oil and caraWay seed, and
lathered over with eggplant sauce,
couldn't help owning that Americans
asi-Tt the only people who know
what's good.
81 suppose, too, my eating Them
changed my way of looking at 4auid
a lot; anyhow, evenewhile we caught
most of them off the very mole thaS.I
was working beside, l don't thinkhI
gave two anxious thoughts to then
when l vas iR-qRe water. More THAI
likely that was because those I'd seeIs
caught never weighed more than 25s
pounds, and because I took it for
granted that they were all out at sea
in my working hours. Well, they
weren't all under Is pounds, or all
out at sea at daylight, either!
Il learned this n afternoon when
something went wrong with the jerry
rugged derrick we were using. For
half an hour no tackle had come down
to me, and at last l got tired of doing
nothing. I'd never been between
decks at all, for as the boat was a
common lighter, everything I'd had
to handle was piled up above; but now
that l had the time, l thought I'd like
to see how the Sicilian lighterman had
his living quarters furnished. So |
climbed down the hatchway ladder.
you often hear people speaking
Of black darkness and, as I've had
cause to know, it's possible for some
caves and mine cuttings to be pretty
pitchy; but they're nothing to whatthe
hold of a. wreck can show. When
you're down any depth to speak of,
there's almost no such thing as re-
fracted light; if you don't get it in the
form of direct rays. you don't get it
at all.
when I stepped out of the shaft of
hatchway twilight into the tween
decks shadow it was like passing
through a curtain; and as I felt my
way toward where the cooks galley
ought to be, it was like thrusting my
arms and legs into a new element
one thicker than water and not even
liquid; it was kind of furry and seemed
to slide and creep.
ut had it's effect on me, and the
gloom and lonesome horrors that no
uiver working in darkness is ever
without, were beginning to craw over
me, when suddenly something whipped
and closed about my wrist. 1t was
like a big roll of cold, slippery elastic.
1T held me only a moment, but it
left me water-kneed, goose-deshed and
swallowing. l don't KNOW where my
blood went to, but I know it dropped
out of my heart as if an exhaust had
teen opened in the bottom of it; and
on my feet were the pigs Of lead that
hold you down in nightmares.
Il stayed right there, listening to
my pulse beating in my ears and feel
ing myself grow sick; and when did
pull myself together enough to reach
for the signal line, my arm was
clutched like a flash. The next mo
ment my other was a prisoner, too.
Then the t~entacles began to nose about
all over me axe cells.
81 did not need my eyes to know
what it was. I'd heard of the curiosi-
ty of the giant rock squid, and I'd
often watched the little ones in the
Palermo aquarium. They'll lay hold
of something new to them, and paw
it over deliberately by the hour,
squeezing and pulling it, and never
letting go for a minute.
Gall this came back to me, and
could judge the size of the squid that
had got hold of me by tue length of
it's arms. Its eyes told its bunk, too;
for when I'd got my strength again,
and my struggling began to turn its
curiosity into anger, they came out
phosphorescent in the darkness. They
were hideous anough danger signals,
and as / wrenched and heaved they
lighted up uglier and uglier. For all
I could do the grip on me only tight
ened.
But it wasn't the tightness of the
grip that was sending the crawling
shudders through me; it was the kind
of grip it was. For the suckers-and
there were two rows of them on every
arm-began to set and draw They
glued themselves to me all over, but
l felt their mouth worst on my bare
hands and wrists.
Sometimes I would get hold Of the
end of an arm, and twist it off me;
but 1t only gave and stretched like the
elastic it was. | knew that as soon
as / had to relax the tension it would
spring back again. And every minut.
or two the brute spat its sepia; I could
smell it even through my rubber suit
/ fought and yelled like a crazy man
for my nerves had gone; but the thick
though! hough!' the beast makes wher
: its blood is up was all the answer ant
heed 1t gave me.
"Yet in that first terror it hadn'1
r rightly come over me what my rea
!, danger was. It was only when I haG
struggled and screamed myself tire,
and had gasping leisure for cleal
thinking that | realized what the ent
!, of 1t was likely to be. My first
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