The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-05-12
n-n,e,man had his living quartersSfur-
nssied. So climbed down the 'hatcnway

.aa,,.rs nothinr.to vhat the hold Of! a y
wreck can show When you re uowh any
depth to speak Of there's almost no such
thing as refracted light; If you don't get
it in the form of direct waqs, you DON'T
get 1t at all
"when I stepped out of the shaft of
hatchway twilight into Se 'tween-decks
shadow it like passing through cur
tain; and as 1 felt my way toward wnere
the cooks galley ought to be, 1t was ike
thrusting my arms and legs into new
element-one thicker than water. and not
even liquid it was kind OF FURRY anu
seemed to slide and creep.
ut had its effect on me. and the gloom
and lonesome horrors that no diver
working in darkness is ever without were
beginning to crawl over me, when sud
denly something whipped and closed about
my wrist 1t was like big roll of coid'
slippery elastic.
ct held me only a moment. but it left |
me water-kneed. goose-fieshed and swal- |
lowing l don't know where my blood !
went to. but I know 1t dropped out of my
heart as if exhaust had been opened
| in the bottom of it; and on my feet were
| the pigs of lead that hold you down in
| nightmares.
pulse beating in my ears and feeling my
self grow sick; and when did pull myself
| together enough to reach for the signal
| line my arm was clutched like fash
| The next moment my other was prison
| er, too. Then the tentacles began to
nose about all over me like cells.
| II did not need my eyes to know what
| it was I'd heard of the curiosity 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 minute
..Au this came back to me- and coufd
iudge the size of the squid that had got
hold of by the length of it's arms. lis
eyes told it's bulk, too: for when Ia got
my strength again. and my struggling De-
gan to turn it's curiosity into anger. they
came out phosphorescent in the darkness
They were hideous enough danger-signais,
and as l wrenched and heaved they light
ed up uglier and ugler. For all 1 could
! do the grip on me only frightened:
; But it wasn't the tightness of the grip
that was sending the crawling shudders
: through me; it was the kind of grip 1t
was. For the suckers-and there were two
rows of them every arm-began TO set
e and draw They glued themselves to me
; | all over. but l felt their mounting worst
| on my bare hands and wrists.
o sometimes | would get hold of the end
: of an arm and twist it off me. but II
i only gave and stretched like the elastic
it was I knew that as soon as hao I,
I relax the tension it would spring bacf
again. And every minute or two the brute
,e sDat it's sepia; could smell it ever
= through my rubber suit. fought ah'
a yelled like q crazy man. for my nerve:
~ mad gone; but the thick 'houGh! houSh
|" the beast makes when its blood is up wa
7 all the answer and heed it gave me.
" yet in that first terror it hadn rlSht,
y come over me what my real danger was
is If was only when I had struggled ant
re screamed myself tired and had gaspini
leisure for clear thinking that realize
us what the end of it was likely to be. NJ
he first thought was that, after all
~ couldn't he choked to death nor my al
n supply shut off and it would only be
an matter of time till ! ana the ofut" ~oul
lt be hauled up together
wv Then of sudden my mind went oac
II TO the aquarium again, ana l re1nefl
bered that whenever the little suuids
er, it caught fish. anything else sol
ls- enough, they never failed to finish hant
of ling it by pushing out that chisel-edse'
lid parrot-beak of theirs. and ripping it u
Ike i,st as a child might OBJ rag doll. II
to head had only to let go whatever II wa
nd holding to in the galley, the beak ma
&C. only to reach the breast of my suit
ner even to slit up one of my sleeves to dro"
err me as sure as If there weren't divini
arr pump within a thousand miles of PalerIn
II think | went into kind of deliriu
lad then filling my helmet full of senseie
rn- screeching till it rang like a Chimes
I'm gong Jerking and writhing in the brute
or arms and finging my head back and TO
md ward in the crazy hope of sending up
ing signal that way; but 1 had too mu'
slack and I knew they'd probably
ere | heed it, anyway.
70 .Au the time the suckers We're drawn
uch steadily stronger From the first nip a
and sting l felt now long. burning act
one arm was coiliug itself more and me
ing around my neck; could hear II RI
NV, suueaking about my copper collar. and
.ke II frightened I knew 1t was bringing
"a head gradually closer.
,uid The sepia was nov a. w t,-h. :
cad year pllRe. AS i'''tl' -, ~, 90
ong eyes Sloo" - 81, tirhts in +
,Hp turned Crueler and crueler at every hes
t,a,, I gave. / couldn't think or pray. co
.;st only rave at the Italians up above for
Is. ting me he done to death like this
NJ; suddenly | felt the hose and line gre
ing taut The next minute was off
feet and there a terrific tug as
ing. saulo = "!..' Till, iSstsd ste.SiiI,t nm he $
y. e-ripping to me, and so in one big clu
-, | we came to the hatchway. he tried
Ate: eet a purchase on it squee
va through but he didn't. was IN l.
- that ne had such other things to TN
l,ss of for they kept his beak of me.
u eaN mo 7 didn't end up by fainting
mus. awning like that. When they'd
"ti screwed my faceplate, l just sat on
way side of the mole and did a little laugh
M; and crying both at once. can renen
anu vet the outlandish sounds l made; it
short 10 ~, a. ,,be,, vou'va laid his poor I
thtE across le choppiug block.
g po- ut -, two days before l could
"a up myself ~ 20 putting the armor on az
Even thu | roW could see the red mi
when all over X tIiands and wrists; you
their ,,,aka them for Yourself by touching
ana skin with IA pneumatic nozzle for a
ming. ond or even by sucking hard with
otteu lips.
y the .tN,y tenders said they had hauled m
otion because they'd felt queer, steady
n till ! inc on the hose. Probably the brute
horls. | cot hold of it with one of its arms,
mself had reefed in the slack to see what 1t
hooks it's curiosity may have been my safv3
Italian after all However, my gang took al
before credit for it, and they prepared TO
md eat two of SiEnOr Pulpu's legs by
TING