onstantly writhing
tentacles--above, so that their line of progress was through what
resembled a restless, living tunnel of repulsive black flesh, snaky
arms and huge, unblinking eyes. Keith felt faint from the horror of
it. Thousands of the monsters were there, all hanging in the soft,
blue-glowing water; and occasionally, as he floated almost
horizontally in his captor's firm grip, his legs would brush the wall
of clammy flesh; or perhaps one of the tentacles would reach out as if
to touch him.

The octopus that held him swam some five feet off the street bed
itself; at intervals the thick swarm on either side would part for a
second, and Keith could glimpse the huge mound-buildings, ever growing
larger, with round entrance holes dotted all over their smooth
surface, above as well as the sides.

The march was ghastly. Their captors were taking them through the
heart of the water-metropolis; displaying their human captives as did
the Caesars in Roman triumphs of old!

* * * * *

The swarming crowds of tentacled monsters grew thicker as they
progressed, and their tentacles began to whip more quickly, as if
anger was burning in their loathsome bodies. Keith noted the menace of
their sharp-beaked jaws, and the sickening sucker-discs on the livid
under-side of the tentacles. As far as he could see, the swarms fell
in behind the procession after it had passed. Following them--where?

Just as Wells felt himself on the verge of fainting, the procession
turned to the right and entered the largest mound-building of all, a
vast dome rising in the very center of the octopi metropolis. They
continued through a corridor perhaps twenty feet high, from which at
intervals other corridors branched. Held by one arm, and ever and
again turning helplessly over in his horizontal transit, Keith caught
glimpses of walls covered with intricate designs on a basic
eight-armed motif--designs of artistic value, that gave evidence of
culture and civilization.

The passage ended as suddenly as it had begun, and they came into the
main body of a gigantic building.

The commander could hardly credit his eyes. The place resembled a
stadium, and was so vast that he felt dwarfed to nothingness. The
domed roof soared far above in misty bluish light. On the floor,
exactly beneath the center of the great dome, was a raised platform,
and on it a dais resembling a very wide throne. Around the dais a
score or more of o