The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1902-05-10

what's goou.
81 suppose, too, my eating them
changed my way of looking at squld
a lot: anyhow, even while we caught
most Of them off the very mole that l
was working beside, l don't think
gave two anxious thoughts to them
when l. was in the water. More than
likely that was because those Ia seen
caught never weighed more than 70 !
pounds. and because l took 1t Tor |
granted that they were all out at sea |
in my working hours. Well, they
weren't all under rs pounds, or all
out at sea at daylight, either!
81 learned this one 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 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 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 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 1t
at all.
when stepped out of the shaft OF
hatchway twilight into the tween
| decks shadow 1t was like passing
through a curtain; and as / felt my
way toward where the cooks galley
ought to be, it was like thrusting my
arms and legs into new clement
one thicker than water and not even
liquid; it was kind of furry and seemed
to slide and creep.
at had its erect 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 big roll of cold, slippery elastic.
sit held me only a moment, but it
left me water-kneed, goose-feshed and
swallowing. don't know where my
| blood went to, but / know it dropped
out of my heart as If an exhaust had
teen opened in the potion of 1t; and
on my feet were the pigs Of lead that
hold you down in Nightmares.
81 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 flash. The next mo-
ment my other was a prisoner, too
Then the tentacles began to nose about
all over me ,.ne eels.
81 did not need my eyes to know
what It was. I'd heard of the curiosi
. | ty of the giant rock squid, and Io
often watched the little ones in thu
Palermo aquarium. They'll lay holt
of something new to them, and paw
it over deliberately by the hour
squeezing and pulling it, and neve
letting go for minute.
"All this came back to me, and
could Judge the size of the squid tina
had got hold of me by tue length o
it's arms. Its eyes told its bulk, too
for when I'd got my strength again
: and my struggling began to turn it
curiosity into anger, they came on
phosphorescent in the darkness. The
were hideous anough danger signals
and as / wrenched and heaved the
! lighted up uglier and uglier. For a.
| could do the grip on me only tight
|, ened.
J. But 1t wasn't the tightness of tn
grip that was sending the crawlin
shudders through me; it was the kin
of grip it was. For the suckers-an
= there were two rows of them on ever
= arm-began to set and draw The
glued themselves to me all over, b,
| felt their mouth worst on my bal
hands and wrists.
!. Sometimes would get hold Of IL
- end of an arm, and twist 1t off me
!. but 1t only gave and stretched like Il
:. elastic 1t was. / knew that as SOC
: as / had to relax the tension 1t wou
= spring back again. And every mfnu
: or two the brute spat its sepia; cou
:. smell 1t even through my rubber sui
| fought and yelled like crazy ma
:. for my nerves had gone; but the thi'
- shough! hough!' the beast makes WIFI
=, its blood is up was all the answer al
heed it gave me.
"Yet in that first terror 1t hadI
.e rightly come over me what my re
y danger was. 1t was only when l h'
= struggled and screamed myself tir
and had gasping leisure for Gle
~ thinking that 1 realized what the el
- of it was likely to be. My fir
= thought was, that, after all, / couldl
- be choked to death nor my air supp
. shut off, and 1t would only be ms
ter of time till and the brute wou
~ be hauled up together.
"Then of suauen my mind we
~ back to the aquarium again, and l
membered that whenever the lit
- squids in it caught fish, or anythi
!. else soft enough, they never failed
~ finish handling it by pushing out II
81 chisel-edged, parrot beak of theirs, a
ripping it up just as child might
~ old rag doll It's head had only to
ne go whatever 1t was holding to in I
galley, the beak had only to reach
'id breast of my suit or even to slit
ey one of my sleeves to drown me as 81
ne as IL there weren't diving pump wi
! in a thousand miles of Palermo.
cir 81 think l went into kind of I
ose lirium then, filling my helmet full
The sanso,ess screacbine till II rang i
'as Chinese gong, jerking and writhi
ool he brute's arms, and fnging
:. ui- head back and forward In the cr'