BENEATH TROPIC SEAS 



With the magic of sea things, he was floating gently 

 in mid-space, keeping just out of reach of my itch- 

 ing palms, and scarleting and palliding as nothing 

 can in the world but a squid. I stood upright 

 and looked down. All his arms stretched out for an 

 instant in my direction, and out of the transparency 

 of the waving fin there slowly grew two more eyes, 

 eyes more terrible than his real staring orbs, because 

 of their very unreality and brilliance. They 

 seemed to gaze stolidly, unemotionally at me, until 

 suddenly the apparition changed appallingly, and 

 heavy, shaggy eyebrows appeared, — eyebrows 

 meeting in mid-brow, where yet there was no brow, 

 — scowling straight, unblinkingly. The lids and 

 pupils — all were clear and distinct. After they had 

 looked at me for a space of time which might 

 have been a second or a week, they gradually faded 

 away, — no whit unlike Alice's cat, and the tail fin 

 of the squid showed again, white and unmarked. 



I pursued some way further, until the path was 

 too becoraled and sea-urchined for careless walking, 

 and then I returned to my sponges. The cotton 

 had worked partly out, the loose ends floating and 

 drifting, and the chimney simile was heightened 

 by this flaring smoke pouring down current from 

 the mouths. This time I allowed nothing to inter- 

 fere with my securing of the colony and started 

 back for the boat. 



The way was obscured and the ladder had 

 vanished from sight, so I looked for the floating 

 hose by which to set my return course. Without 



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