NO-MAN'S-LAND FIVE FATHOMS DOWN 



later the swell brought it back to my elbow and now 

 I stuffed my sponges rhythmically, one to each 

 sway of the cotton. Once the swing was broken 

 and to my dismay my cloud acquired a new rhythm 

 of its own and sailed off with a myriad trailing 

 strands. I pursued, caught it and found that a 

 jellyfish, so transparent that it had passed unseen 

 close to my eyes and collided with my wad of cotton, 

 pulsated deeply within its tissues, — ^when cotton 

 cloud became mobile jelly forthwith. I shook the 

 jelly free, leaving a host of tiny tufts adherent to 

 its tentacles, to aid or impede its future path of life. 



Returning to my work, I pricked my finger on an 

 urchin's spine and involuntarily jerked my sponge 

 bush, whereat a tiny, lithe fish darted out, up to 

 my helmet, looked in, and slipped back into the 

 sponge between my fingers — all in an instant of 

 time. I rammed the cloud plug after him and 

 gently began to pry the colony loose. 



At this instant I saw a new thing — ^an absolutely 

 new thing to me — something in which my years of 

 study of ocean forms of life helped me not at all. 

 It was floating in mid-water, oval in shape, sur- 

 rounded by a band of waving fin, while hanging 

 down in front were two strange appendages. I 

 left my clump of sponges, slowly gathered up the 

 cotton cloud and crept after this phantom. I 

 gained on it, and saw two large eyes. Then it 

 shifted its backward progress, swerving about a 

 branch of coral and, from the side, my monster 

 became the foreshortened body of a great squid. 



47 



