upright, and alive, and its roots must have been
enormously deep and wide. It was drifting along the coast, through
the heavy seas. Maskull eyed it incuriously for a few minutes. Then it
dawned on him that it might be a good thing to investigate its nature.
Without stopping to weigh the danger, he immediately swam out, caught
hold of the lowest branch, and swung himself up.

He looked aloft and saw that the main stem was thick to the very top,
terminating in a knob that somewhat resembled a human head. He made
his way toward this knob, through the multitude of boughs, which were
covered with tough, slippery, marine leaves, like seaweed. Arriving at
the crown, he found that it actually was a sort of head, for there were
membranes like rudimentary eyes all the way around it, denoting some
form of low intelligence.

At that moment the tree touched bottom, though some way from the shore,
and began to bump heavily. To steady himself, Maskull put his hand out,
and, in doing so, accidentally covered some of the membranes. The tree
sheered off the land, as if by an act of will. When it was steady again,
Maskull removed his hand; they at once drifted back to shore. He thought
a bit, and then started experimenting with the eyelike membranes. It was
as he had guessed--these eyes were stimulated by the light of the moon,
and whichever way the light came from, the tree would travel.

A rather defiant smile crossed Maskull's face as it struck him that
it might be possible to navigate this huge plant-animal as far as
Matterplay. He lost no time in putting the conception into execution.
Tearing off some of the long, tough leaves, he bound up all the
membranes except the ones that faced the north. The tree instantly left
the island, and definitely put out to sea. It travelled due north. It
was not moving at more than a mile an hour, however, while Matterplay
was possibly forty miles distant.

The great spout waves fell against the trunk with mighty thuds; the
breaking seas hissed through the lower branches--Maskull rested high and
dry, but was more than a little apprehensive about their slow rate
of progress. Presently he sighted a current racing along toward the
north-west, and that put another idea into his head. He began to juggle
with the membranes again, and before long had succeeded in piloting his
tree into the fast-running stream. As soon as they were fairly in its
rapids, he blinded the crown entirely, and thenceforward the