The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-07-04


 easy task. Divers were employed for this latter work, taking down chains which they fastened around the mason ry, the stones being afterward hauled up by means of powerful cranes. One of the most experienced men engaged on the diving operations was H. Pal mer, who has had fiftsen years expe- rience of underwater work in various parts of the world. One day Palmer went down in the ordinary course of his work and was engaged in putting chair around a great seven-tOn block of concrete when he suddenly noticed a. l curious looking object protruding from 8 cavity below the block The water was comparatively clear, and at that depth the diver was able to see around him with ease.
 Bending down, Palmsr examined the, l object which had attracted dnis atten- tion. He was just beginning to won der what 1t could be when. without the slightest warning, it began to move to- ward him. A huge tentacle shot out from below the stone, moved swiftly | sideways and in an instant had seized l lis leg in vice-like grip. Mortified, the diver staggered backward, but as he did so another great feeler. appeared from under the masonry and alighted puon :is arm, holding it helpless 1 Wildly the man struggled to free him ! self but all in vain. Where the innu-
 merable tiny suckers touched the | naked besh of his hand they Stung and scared like an electric wire, andhe felt
 himself drawn slowly but surely to- 1 ward the da:k hole under the stone, where lurked the hideous ceature which owned those writhing aTTns.
 Palmer is a big, burly man in the prime of life, and has faced danger in | many forms in the course of his long experience. But for moment or so l the unutterable horror of his position i held him spellbound; even his brain 1 providing for the forfeiture of trible
 seamed iiumbed. Then, slowly with a l gliding motion that was horrible to be 1 hold, the creature beneath the stone
 began to emerge. As 1t came out Pal
 mer beheld with shudder the cold, staring eyes and paEot-like beak of an enormous octopus, or deyilfish! Other tentacies now lowered around i him, seeking a point of vantage where
 they could seize hold. Desperately the l tortured man strove to wrench himself free, but the more he stuggled the tigher grew the grip of the sinuous 1 coils which held him by arm and leg. 1 Then, one by one the remaining feel
 CTS settled around his body-cold, slimy, quivering masses, but iFresisti-
 ble In their strength. Palmer, incum-
 bered by his heavy dress, turned this
 way and that in his efforts to escape, l and cursed the thoughtlessnests which had sent him down to the bottom with out even a Knife. And now--He
 looked into those awful eyes, so closa
 to his own, and could have screamed
 with terror The sickening horror of
 his plight folded helpless in the dead
 ly embrace of that hideous monster
 would have driven many brave man raving mad. It was useless to strug- gle-those slimy tsntacles had the
 strength of bonds of steel. He had , heard of divers, attacked by small dew ilffsh, boldly seizing their baaks and 1 turning them inside oat for ali tsifs world like stocking. But the great size and immense strength of this spec
 linen put any such proceeding on his l part entirely out of the question. How would death come? Would the awful l creature crush him slowly out of hu- | man shape or would it tear his diving
 dress and so kill him quickly and mer- 1 cifully? | Instinctively Palmer had kept one arm free from the encircling tentacles
 He now noticed mechanically that the octopus had let go it's hold of the rna-
 sorry and had wrapped itself entirely
 round him.The sight gave him courage. Had the creature anchored itself to the conorete it is probable that this tale | would never have been written, and
 that Palmer's name would have gone to swell the long list of those who have l died while following the dangerous oc- 1 equation of diving. Making a desper- | ate effort to throw off the stupor of nausea and fear which benumbed his faculties, the diver reached up his free arm and pulled his signal cord with all his strength, whereupon the men above started to haul him up. The octopus l made one e1fort to seize hold of the
 concrete, but it was just too late, and
 still clinging relentlsssly to its prey
 was drawn to the surface. The horror of the men above when they beheld the | diver emerge from the water in the | loathsome embrace of the great devil-
 fish can be better imagined than de-
 scribed While some dragged the now
 all but unconscious Palmer up the lad
 dsre others ran for hatchets and knives and fierce attack was made upon the l creature. ."'
 In spite of every onslaught, however
 the quivering tentacles still chung ob-
 stirately to the diver as though loath
 to rc.inquish him, and it was not until
 the creature had been pretty well hecked to pieces that, by exerting all
 their strength, the men were finally