blood I saw. But I saw none. I felt it going, however.
Two spots on my chest began to smart, then burn as though hot irons
were piercing me. Frantically I struck, right and left, sometimes at
the coils encircling me, again in the air. Then all became dark.

* * * * *

"I awakened in a stateroom berth, too weak to lift my hands, with the
taste of brandy in my mouth and the professor standing over me with a
bottle in his hand.

"'Ach, it is well,' he said. 'You will recover. You haf merely lost
blood, but you did the right thing. You struck with your knife at the
blood, and you killed the creature. I was right. Heart, brain, und all
vital parts were in der stomach.'

"'Where are we now?' I asked, for I did not recognize the room.

"'On board der steamer. When you got on your feet und staggered aft, I
knew you had killed him, and gave you my assistance. But you fainted
away. Then we were taken off. Und I haf two or three beautiful
negatives, which I am printing. They will be a glorious contribution to
der scientific world.'

"I was glad that I was alive, yet not alive enough to ask any more
questions. But next day he showed me the photographs he had printed."

"In Heaven's name, what was it?" I asked excitedly, as the old artist
paused to empty and refill his pipe.

"Nothing but a giant squid, or octopus. Except that it was bigger than
any ever seen before, and invisible to the eye, of course. Did you ever
read Hugo's terrible story of Gilliat's fight with a squid?"

I had, and nodded.

"Hugo's imagination could not give him a creature--no matter how
formidable--larger than one of four feet stretch. This one had three
tentacles around me, two others gripped the port and starboard
pin-rails, and three were gripping the stump of the mainmast. It had a
reach of forty feet, I should think, comparing it with the beam of the
craft.

"But there was one part of each picture, ill defined and missing. My
knife and right hand were not shown. They were buried in a dark lump,
which could be nothing but the blood from my veins. Unconscious, but
still struggling, I had struck into the soft body of the monster, and
struck true."

NOAH'S ARK

Sam Rogers told me the story that follows, as we sat in the coils of
the foremain and topsail braces--easy chairs aboard ship--and,
sheltered from the blast of wind and spume by the high-weather rail,
killed time in the night-watch by