ready for her capture, then paused a while to 

 watch. 



The traits referred to in the foregoing were those 

 concerned with the Hyas's method of concealment, 

 the manner in which it made itself invisible or 

 inconspicuous by fastening different materials to 

 its shell; but, curiously, the spider-crab which I 

 now saw had none of these signs of camouflage. 

 Her back was as bare as the proverbial bone. 



The reason for this, however, soon became ap- 

 parent. She proceeded without a stop straight 

 toward a clump of sea-lettuce containing several 

 large fronds which in their upward buoyant reach 

 cast long black shadows across the floor where they 

 finally blended with the even intenser blackness 

 of the mussel-bed beyond. And then occurred one 

 of those brain-baffling crises when for the moment 

 I was hard put to convince myself of the credi- 

 bility of anything that passed before my sight . . . 



The clump of seaweed began to move toward 

 the oncoming spider-crab! . . . They met. Then 

 two great claws reached out from the clump and a 

 pair of long arms folded themselves around the 

 unresisting female, gathering her close to the base 

 of the lifting fronds. 



[213] 



