o watchspring. The core of the watchspring was his head, the
extremity his tail, and, when the bubble touched him, he flicked out like
the works of a Waterbury. His first colour sensation was the green of
thick glass. As he sank, it grew dimmer and dirtier and browner, and
presently, as he reached the ooze, it was blotted out.

[Illustration: IT WAS MERELY BY CHANCE THAT ONE HIT HIS ENVELOPE OF
STARWORT.]

[Illustration: HE WAS STRAIGHT BUT UNLOVELY.]

[Illustration: IT WAS ONLY THE COPPER GLEAM OF HIS EYE THAT SAVED HIM FROM
INSIGNIFICANCE.]

He was straight, but unlovely--nothing but two black lines and three dots,
cased in a filament of jelly. The lines were destined for his backbone and
stomach; the dots for his eyes and mouth. The latter was ready for
immediate work, given only the impulse. As he sank slowly, head downwards,
the impulse was supplied. Out from his neck there floated two sprays of
gossamer network, of such delicate texture, such dainty tracery, that
nothing but the gentle laving of water could have unravelled them and
left them whole. Through them the water flowed, and with it came the dim
consciousness of individual life, the dim instinct of self-preservation.
As he touched the bottom, the middle dot resolved itself into a sucker.

Fortunately his tastes were vegetarian and indiscriminate. For three days
he contentedly sucked in his slush surroundings, and, in that time, the
two outer dots bedecked themselves with rings of burnished copper. He
could breathe, he could eat, he could see.

On the fourth day he could move. The black lines had also played their
part. Both had intensified, but not equally. The uppermost had outstripped
its fellow. For half its length it now ran alone, tapering to its end and
carrying with it a ribbon envelope, transparent and invisible as glass.

Its use he learnt by grim experience. When first he moved it, it drove him
headlong into inky darkness. His gills crumpled in the rough embrace of
the mud, and his eyes and sucker were choked with slime. It was only a
desperate, convulsive, aimless wriggle that freed him. The next time he
cleared his immediate surroundings, and shot a full six inches upwards,
only to sink slowly to the ooze again, motionless, and exhausted. He had
described an elegant parabola.

Day by day his excursions grew longer and higher. Nor were they without
adventure. Sometimes he would be caught in the wake of a stickleback, and
would reach the