377 



77} e Slory 



Once, as he hunted in this way, he spied 

 a queer cave in the rocks with gleaming 

 white points reaching up from the bottom 

 and down from the top, like stalactites and ^l^f^'r^a* 



stalagmites, and with just room enough for 

 him to swim in between them, — a perfect 

 place, it looked, for a nice soft lobster to 

 be hiding. Kopseep lay in the weeds and 

 watched a few moments, then glided for- 

 ward to enter. Just then something began to 

 glow dull red over the cave ; and in a flash 

 Kopseep had whirled away, while the long 

 weeds swayed and rolled and hid him as he 

 darted aside. In a moment he was stealing 

 back to watch the den from another hiding- 

 place. Suddenly the whole cave seemed to 

 move and tremble. The white points above 

 and below came slowly together, and there * [ 

 was no more an open doorway. Out from 

 the rocks glided a queer monster of a mouth- 

 fish, colored like the gray rocks, with dull 

 red eyes and a head like a Chinese dragon. 

 He looked around for a moment, backed into 

 his lair, opened his huge mouth, — and there 

 was the cave again, looking just like a den 



t> 



