e professor,
after the bright idea of using the turpentine torch to dry out his
plates, had gone to his fairly dry berth, after announcing his
readiness to take snapshots about the deck in the morning.

"But I roused him long before morning. I roused him when I saw through
my window the masthead and two side lights of a steamer approaching
from the starboard, still about a mile away. I had not dared to go up
and rig that lantern at the mizzen stump; but now I nerved myself to go
up with the torch, the professor following with his instruments.

"'You cold-blooded crank,' I said to him, as I waved the torch. 'I
admire your devotion to science, but are you waiting for that thing to
get me?'

"He did not answer, but rigged his apparatus on the top of the cabin.
He had a Wimshurst machine--to generate a blue spark, you know--and
this he had attached to the big deck light, from which he had removed
the opaque glass. Then he had his camera, with its rock-crystal lens.

"He trained both forward, and waited, while I waved the torch, standing
near the stump with a turn of rope around me for safety's sake in case
the thing seized me; and to this idea I added the foolish hope, aroused
by the professor's theories, that the blinding light of the torch would
frighten the thing away from me as it does wild animals.

"But in this last I was mistaken. No sooner was there an answering
blast of a steam whistle, indicating that the steamer had seen the
torch, than something cold, wet, leathery, and slimy slipped around my
neck. I dropped the torch, and drew my knife, while I heard the whir of
the static machine as the professor turned it.

"'Use your knife, mine friend,' he called. 'Use your knife, und reach
for any blood what you see.'

"I knew better than to call for help, and I had little chance to use
the knife. Still, I managed to keep my right hand, in which I held it,
free, while that cold, leathery thing slipped farther around my neck
and waist. I struck as I could, but could make no impression; and soon
I felt another stricture around my legs, which brought me on my back.

"Still another belt encircled me, and, though I had come up warmly clad
in woolen shirts and monkey jacket, I felt these garments being torn
away from me. Then I was dragged forward, but the turn of rope had
slipped down toward my waist, and I was merely bent double.

"And all the time that German was whirling his machine, and shouting to
strike for any