underneath. Then unslinging my camera, I 

 steadied myself, and snapped its picture. But dur- 

 ing this operation, I did not fail to observe out of 

 the corner of my eye that something unusual was 

 taking place in the water about me. Almost imme- 

 diately following the flick of the curtain shutter, 

 a shadowy form streaked past my side. So ghostly 

 indistinct was it that at first I was misled; I mis- 

 took it for a ripple-shadow passing over the floor. 

 Then this was followed by another — then another 

 — then several others . . . And I realized now 

 with amazement that I was in the midst of a small 

 school of this selfsame creature's fellows, adult 

 living Loligos, darting here and there in the man- 

 ner made familiar to me in the descriptions of the 

 squid. 



My own immobility had served to make me in- 

 conspicuous; the roving animals doubtless taking 

 me for part of the inanimate surroundings and, 

 therefore, an object not to be feared. Occasionally 

 one of the spectral figures would approach almost 

 within my reach; tail foremost it swam, without 

 the assistance of any appendage, without a single 

 perceivable movement of a muscle. Then with sur- 

 prising suddenness, it would stop short, and with 



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