The Flatties 



automatically, drawing down a kind of horny lid behind them as 

 they retreated to safety. They were fastened firmly to these self- 

 made fortresses by a formidable series of hooks and they could 

 often compress themselves far back from the entrance so that it 

 was quite a considerable undertaking to dig one of them out when 

 its tube was exposed at low tide. And that, of course, was why the 

 lemon sole had those strange lips. It was not like the plaice and 

 the cod. It was not even so omnivorous as the haddock and whit- 

 ing. It fed almost entirely on these worms and, if it could not 

 catch enough of them, then it would certainly starve. And these 

 worms had to be hunted with stealth, ingenuity and cunning if 

 they were not to entrench themselves safely before the sole got 

 near them. The fish therefore crept forwards, moving invisibly by 

 the slightest undulations of its body and fins. It hardly stirred the 

 surrounding water. That would have warned the worm, and a 

 worm springing back into its tube was the swiftest thing alive. No 

 twitch of the human muscle could equal it. Only the accidental 

 agility of a splinter as it exploded from a damp and burning log, 

 ever impressed Jan with such a pure intensity of speed. When, 

 however, they were at their ease on the bottom - their tentacles, 

 some of them studded with more than a peacock's supply of eyes, 

 all swishing silently through the water - nothing but a born hunter 

 would have realised the need for caution. To a man they would 

 have been plants. A lawn-mower would have done to harvest 

 them. But the sole moved slowly. Finally he would stop close to 

 a savoury bunch of filaments. His head would begin to arch over 

 the worm. There would be no movement whatsoever but the 

 sway of the worm's feathery teeth. The sole's head would arch 

 higher, climb gradually, invisibly, silently, until the fish was al- 

 most upright on its tail, while its head w^as forming a high italic S : 

 and then it would descend. Its thick rubbery lips would be glued 

 to the worm's tube. The mass of the tentacles would be bitten off 

 and swallowed, but the head of the worm w^ould be held by the 

 fish and it would begin to suck, trying to pull the remainder of 

 that succulent body out of the home that was its only safety. Usu- 



109 



