ormed my horrible
escort, hovering over me like a bird of prey which is waiting to pounce.
Its method of progression--done so swiftly that it was not easy to
follow--was to throw out a long, glutinous streamer in front of it, which
in turn seemed to draw forward the rest of the writhing body. So elastic
and gelatinous was it that never for two successive minutes was it the
same shape, and yet each change made it more threatening and loathsome
than the last.

"I knew that it meant mischief. Every purple flush of its hideous body
told me so. The vague, goggling eyes which were turned always upon me
were cold and merciless in their viscid hatred. I dipped the nose of my
monoplane downwards to escape it. As I did so, as quick as a flash there
shot out a long tentacle from this mass of floating blubber, and it fell
as light and sinuous as a whip-lash across the front of my machine. There
was a loud hiss as it lay for a moment across the hot engine, and it
whisked itself into the air again, while the huge flat body drew itself
together as if in sudden pain. I dipped to a vol-pique, but again a
tentacle fell over the monoplane and was shorn off by the propeller as
easily as it might have cut through a smoke wreath. A long, gliding,
sticky, serpent-like coil came from behind and caught me round the waist,
dragging me out of the fuselage. I tore at it, my fingers sinking into
the smooth, glue-like surface, and for an instant I disengaged myself,
but only to be caught round the boot by another coil, which gave me a
jerk that tilted me almost on to my back.

"As I fell over I blazed off both barrels of my gun, though, indeed, it
was like attacking an elephant with a pea-shooter to imagine that any
human weapon could cripple that mighty bulk. And yet I aimed better than
I knew, for, with a loud report, one of the great blisters upon the
creature's back exploded with the puncture of the buck-shot. It was very
clear that my conjecture was right, and that these vast clear bladders
were distended with some lifting gas, for in an instant the huge cloud-
like body turned sideways, writhing desperately to find its balance,
while the white beak snapped and gaped in horrible fury. But already I
had shot away on the steepest glide that I dared to attempt, my engine
still full on, the flying propeller and the force of gravity shooting me
downwards like an aerolite. Far behind me I saw a dull, purplish smudge
growing swiftly smal