Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1924-06-13

1t was no shadow. 1t was a fiat
tened man, a dwarfish figure, ridicu-
lousy misproportloned, resembling an
image seen in curved mirror. 1t APP
preached slowly and uncertainty. For
moment Donald felt his heart stand
still with fear. 1t was a nightmare
figure, terror incarnate. A little glow
flashed from its arm. They drew to-
gether,
They stood looking at each other,
peering through their thick masks.
But in that vague medium recognition
was impossible.
Donald saw only the blurred fea-
lures behind the thick glass that COW
cred the face, distorted and twisted
by the refraction. He surmised that
it was not Davies. Davies could have
made himself known by any of a num-
Der Of symbols of the seaman's free
masonry. But then, 1t could not be
Clouts either.
He caught at the figures hand and
raised it to his sleeve-light. 1t was
a woman's hand-it was Ida's.
They knew each other. Donald took
her fingers in his, and together they
started on the ascent.
To his horror, Donald perceived that
the water was becoming Opaque.
1t presaged the appearance of the
sea monsters. They were in this lair,
and this substance was no food, no
plankton that those devils pushed
forth before them like a veil, but
material designed to shield them from
the filtering sunlight.
Donald grasped Ida's hand and
fought his way through the clinging
mass. AS he swung his free arm,
appraised, 1t struck against a rocky
barrier overhead. The ooze underfoot
had yielded to solid rock.
He thrust out his arms on either
side, and still found rock. He realized
that they were no longer ascending
the mountain, but had struck cave.
Donald stood still, rejecting. Did
Ida understand? There was no way
In which to tell her.
He was about to retrace his steps
when he perceived, long distance in
front of him, tiny glimmer of light.
At first he hoped that it was daylight.
But that was impossible.
Ida raised her hand and pointed.
She, too, had seen it, and had placed
the same Interpretation upon it.
At every step the light grew clearer.
1t was not stationary, but swung to
and fro slowly from side to side, ris-
ing and falling, yet seeming to retreat
slowly as they advanced. Donald
strained his eyes through the mask,
expecting every moment to see the
form of one of his comrades.
The light stood still Immediately in
front sf them, upon a level with Don
AIDS eyes. He leaned forward, put |
out his hand toward it.
Suddenly Ida leaped backward,
dragging him violently with her. There
was a sense of sound, or vibration,
rather, like the closing of a traps |
jaws. They seemed to snap together
hardly a foot from Donald's head.
And he saw suddenly, as if 1t had at
that moment only become visible, the |
shadowy form of some vast monster |
lurking within the recesses of the cave. |
1t was one of the giant forms of |
deep-sea life, perhaps holding the same
relationship toward the sea beasts as
tigers do toward men. 1t might have
followed the swarm when they as
sembled in the submarine crater, pre-
paratory to their emigration south
ward.
1t was not one of the monsters that |
had attacked the boat, for Donald |
could discern a fishlike body and
huge head with cleaning eyes, and a
pair of hinged jaws that gaped wide |
as If to search for the prey that had
eluded them.
The light was a phosphorescent lure
used by the creature to draw its VIC
tins within the cavern In which 1t
lurked. The sluggish monster re-
manned quiescent, and again the lure |
appeared, dangling between the jaws
from the snout above them.
Donald pushed Ida before him and
fed out Of the cave until he trod upon |
the ocean ooze again. And they con-
tInued to crawl at the bottom Of the
sea, two helpless human creatures, UNI
believably helpless, while around them
the fierce, predatory swarms sought
their diurnal food.
Donald had found the slope Of the
island when the water began to grow
thick again.
Presently a phosphorescent patch
appeared In the distance. 1t became
less hazy, 1t seemed to concentrate.
The ocean suddenly became like trans
parent jelly.
And, facing him, Donald saw the
outline of one of the sea monsters,
visible now and horribly magnified.
The eyes opened upon his own. They
were not currantlike in that medium,
but expanded to the full, great orbs
like sunhowers that glowered on their
prospective prey, larger than the eyes
Of any beast created since leviathan