l^ONSUCH 



tongue to it and detected an unpleasant, acrid taste, 

 and I knew that if I were an enemy of lesser stature, 

 with a more perfect sense of taste or smell than we 

 mortal men possess, I should have been unable to 

 devour him, and should probably have dropped him 

 at once. 



I pretended I was all that, and placed him gently 

 near his hole. He side-tracked to the entrance, then 

 turned, raised both eyes to the utmost height and 

 wriggled the low stumps of the vanished arms and 

 claws which rested safely in my pocket. It recalled 

 the forever unknown gesture of the missing arm of 

 the gladiator's torso, and I could but wonder 

 whether that of the crab was intended to be one of 

 final defiance or a salute of gratitude before he 

 slipped slowly from my sight. I well knew that any 

 sympathy would be wasted upon my armless victim. 

 I examined the stumps and found them dry and 

 already shriveled. At this very moment strange in- 

 ternal forces had begun work in the crab, carrying 

 infinitesimal tissue material, and in the course of the 

 coming few weeks new claws would sprout. No plan 

 or blue-print was needed. In the orderly alchemy 

 of the crab's blood, cell would be placed inevitably 

 upon cell, none wasted, none awry. Finally he would 

 be ready again to face me should I pass that way, 

 with his armor intact, ready again with all his little 

 plays for life. 



We have only our own human race to blame if we 

 endow our land crab with considerable conceit. I do 

 not intend low puns when I emphasize the fact that 



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