med mere inert trailers of weed, not
worth the notice of fish or crab. And soon the anemones near by
reopened their treacherous blooms of yellow and crimson.

Whether because there was something in the gold-and-azure fish that
disturbed his inward content, or because his place of ambush had
somehow grown distasteful to his soft, unarmored body, the octopus
presently bestirred himself and crawled forth into the open, walking
awkwardly on the incurled tips of his tentacles. It looked about as
comfortable a method of progression as for a baby to creep on the back
of its hands. The traveller himself did not seem to find it altogether
satisfactory, for all at once he sprang upward nimbly, clear of the
bottom, and gathered his eight tentacles into a compact parallel bunch
extending straight out past his eyes. In this attitude he was no
longer clumsy, but trim and swift-looking. Beneath the bases of the
tentacles, on the under side of the body, a sort of valve opened
spasmodically and took in a huge gulp of water, which was at once
ejected with great force through a tube among the tentacles. Driven by
the strange propulsion of this pulsating stream, the elongated shape
shot swiftly on its way, but travelling backward instead of forward.
The traveller had apparently taken his direction with care before he
started, however, for he made his way straight to another rock,
weedier and more overhanging than the first. Here he stopped, settled
downward, and let his tentacles once more sprawl wide, preparatory to
backing his spotted body-sac into its new quarters.

This was the moment when he was least ready for attack or defence;
and just at this moment a foraging dolphin, big-jawed and hungry, shot
down upon him through the lucent green, mistaking him, perhaps, for an
overgrown but unretaliating squid. The assailant aimed at the big,
succulent-looking body, but missed his aim, and caught instead one of
the tentacles which had reared themselves instantly to ward off the
attack. Before he realized what was happening, another tentacle had
curled about his head, clamping his jaws firmly together so that he
could not open them to release his hold; while yet others had wrapped
themselves securely about his body.

The dolphin was a small one; and such a situation as this had never
come within range of his experience. In utter panic he lashed out with
his powerful tail and darted forward, carrying the octopus with him.
But the weight upon