THE BATTLE ON THE SANDS. 
Poor things ! You could almost see them 
shaking as, listening, the confused sounds that 
Imd given Miss Milly alarm separated into 
intelligible and dreadful notes. There was a 
monstrous shuffling sound. From the other 
side of the Football Rock there was a mon- 
strous shuffling sound — a laboured breathing 
sound ; a gasping sound ; at intervals a dull 
and hideous thudding sound. Rooted in 
speechless terror the pretty creatures sat — 
and still the shuffling, still the laboured 
breathing, still the gasping, still the thuds. 
From where Miss Milly crouched she could see 
farthest round the rock. Suddenly with a cry 
she sprang to her feet. “ It’s those boys /” 
she cried. “ IPs those dreadful, dreadful boys !” 
A dreadful human mass that came stagger- 
ing, jolting, bumping into view, gave the 
picture to her words on the moment. Round 
the corner of the rock and into the open it 
came, tearing up the firm sand as it laboured 
forward, spurning up the firm sand in great 
holes and gashes as in one spot it writhed. 
Locked, as it seemed, in a mesh of arms, and 
yet with a whirling, banging arm crashing 
stupendous blows on itself ; twined, as it 
seemed, in a mesh of legs, and yet with a 
whirling, banging leg flying savagely beneath 
it — Hugh Falkener and Valentine Saxon 
England, in the form of one two-headed, many- 
VoU xlvi.— 43. 
limbed monster, furiously convulsed, came 
plunging into the sunlight. 
Those girls screamed. The hideous appar- 
ition whose fearful convulsions seemingly 
could only end in some appalling explosion 
touched them with noisy terror, and in unison 
they screamed. From every frightened miss 
a scream, and from every jumping heart a 
different scream. One screamed “ Stop ! ” 
another screamed “ Don’t ! ” “ Oh, boys ! 
Oh, boys ! ” one screamed, and “ He’ll lull 
him ! v another. 
The mass writhed on. 
Those girls jumped to their feet. In a 
panic of distress, in an ecstasy of fear, they 
streamed pell-mell from their pretty least to 
rush, and group, and shudder together — some 
holding hands, some clasping hands in agony 
— a yard or so from the agitated monster. 
The mass writhed on. 
Those girls by now were clustered in a 
trembling group from which cries came, that 
shed tears from some of its eyes, that trampled 
back upon itself with alarmed squeals when 
the writhing mass plunged towards it, that 
trembled forward again when the writhing 
mass plunged back. u Oh, don’t, don’t, 
don’t, boys ! ” Miss Milly cried. “ Stop 
them, someone 1 Oh, do stop them ! Oh, 
dear ! Oh, I knew what it would be 1 7J 
