The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-06-26

his swollen and spotless helmet 10 his
shoulders, which were clad in a coat
pitted with an extraordinary number
of pockets. on the lower half OF his
person he wore tweed knickerbockers
and cloth puttees with white spats
A minnow net and a camp-stool with
a pneumatic seat were bound upon his
back, and in his hands he carried a
sheaf of rods and a repeating rife.
BY his side young Boiling, with
bit Of shark-line round his waist TO
keep his shirt down and his trousers
up, and with plenty Of tanned skin
visible, seemed figure Of barbarism,
but the contrast was only external.
The Boston professor and the brown
Floridian were pupils at the same
school, and youth knew at first hand
some OF the wondeful facts that age
had met only i'm textbooks.
The professor had come TO study
marine animals, and when he met
Boiling on the beach and talked with
him, he beamed upon the tall, 1.-the
boy whose eye was as keen as a
heron's, and offered him three dollars
a day for his services. Five dollars
would not have been enough to Danish
the repugnance Boiling felt at first
sight of the knickerbockers and spats,
but when he found out the sort of
man the professor really was, he sur
rendered to him completely.
Those were pleasant days. They
IL I.t
and gave each other OF their own
knowledge and learned new lessons
together. One day they dropped an
chor on a shoal between two man
grove points, where the yellow CLINT
OF sand quivered up through the
water. IL was warm there and pro-
tected, and many smaller species Of
fish swan busily about in it's COM
parative quiet. It was good collect
ing-ground. The professor, with eyes
swapping behind the green veil,
dropped a close-meshed seine over the
side and began to draw it through
the water at the end of a long bamboo
rod.
Perhaps the light disturbance OF its
passage was the attraction. At any
rate, he had made but two or three
attempts when a broad underwater
shadow drew down upon the launch
and paused below the next. which the
professor in his curiosity held mo-
tionless.
"What is that?" he asked, and
pointed.
Boiling looked over the gunwale
with no more than idle interest
what did you see? Where?" he
said. The shadow stirred at the mo-
ment, became more distinct and
Opaque, and the professor gazed down
with startled eyes at the rising bulk
Of the most repulsiye fish he had ever
seen.
ITS the devil" exclaimed Boiling,
stepping back from the gunwale.
The professor had lost his ruddy
color.
Man birostris." he breathed
Tie caught Boiling by the sleeve.
what are those big spots? What
they're eyes, Look at them"
The gigantic ray rose until a scant
fllm of water protected IL back, and
peered upward with cold eyes set
shallow and wide apart. For mo-
ment II lay there, undulating like a
sail in light air; then with a supple
folding Of its huge pancake body. q.
curved downward and became
shadow again, that drifted over the
wavering yellow bottom and disap-
peared.
The professor drew a long and sat
isfied breath, and looked up at the
sun. then across the topaz-hued
water.
Mature is wonderful" he said,
gently. I'VE must get that fellow"
Get the devil-fsh!" cried Boiling
Certainly" said the professor.
ave seen pictures and read descrip-
tions. but" He waved the memory
of them aside contemptuously. Jim,
i never imagined anything like that
since | was a small boy afraid of the
dark. Look here"
He held out his hand, and his fin
gers danced like the prongs of a tun-
ing-fork.
I'm! You-all are scared" said
Boiling, appreciatively.
Interested. Jim! Excited" cried
the professor. 81 don't know whether
I'm afraid or not. It's immaterial.
A ray twenty feet across! must get
that fish, dissect him, know every inch
OF his monstrous body before do
anything else. Will you help me?"
Bolling's eyes suddenly glowed.
Sure III help you You're game.
all right, professor. This shoal would
be heap nicer II we beached that old
devil somewheres.
The ray, apparently so open in it's
movements. pre- we'd a difficult quarry.
It seemed TO have none of the activity,
the daring impetuosity OF the game
fishes. Boiling and the professor,
quartering back and forth across the
shoal. with the engine down TO the
Quietest notch, saw nothing riss to