the lessening of the diameter was a lessening of the current's
velocity, until, in a maze of small, short passages, the invaders,
content to fight and kill in the swifter tide, again attacked the
caves.

But to the never-changing result: they were crushed, mangled, and cast
out, the number of suicides, in this neighborhood, largely exceeding
those killed by the white warriors. And yet, in spite of the large
mortality among them, the attacking force was increasing. Where one
died two took his place; and the reason was soon made plain--they were
reproducing. A black fighter, longer than his fellows, a little
sluggish of movement, as though from the restrictive pressure of a
large, round protuberance in his middle, which made him resemble a
snake which had swallowed an egg, was caught by a white monster and
instantly embraced by a multitude of feelers. He struggled, bit, and
broke in two; then the two parts escaped the grip of the astonished
captor, and wriggled away, the protuberance becoming the head of the
rear portion, which immediately joined the fight, snapping and biting
with unmistakable jaws. This phenomenon was repeated.

And on went the battle. Illumined by the living lamps, and watched by
terrified non-combatants, the horrid carnival continued with
never-slacking fury and ever-changing background--past the mouths of
tributary tunnels which increased the volume and velocity of the
current and added to the fighting strength, on through widening
archways to a repetition of the cross-currents, the thunder, and the
sponge-like maze, down past the heaving walls of larger tunnels to
branched passages, where, in comparative slack water, the siege of the
caves was resumed. For hour after hour this went on, the invaders dying
by hundreds, but increasing by thousands and ten thousands, as the
geometrical progression advanced, until, with swimming-spaces nearly
choked by their bodies, living and dead, there came the inevitable turn
in the tide of battle. A white monster was killed.

Glutted with victims, exhausted and sluggish, he was pounced upon by
hundreds, hidden from view by a living envelop of black, which pulsed
and throbbed with his death-throes. A feeler reached out, to be bitten
off; then another, to no avail. His strength was gone, and the
assailants bit and burrowed until they reached a vital part, when the
great mass assumed a spherical form and throbbed no more. They dropped
off, and, as the mangled ball