about to perceive what matter it was which had attracted the attention of
the bo'sun; thus we made out a tree some twenty yards away, which had all
its branches wrapped about its trunk, much as the lash of a whip is wound
about its stock. Now this seemed to us a very strange sight, and we made
all of us toward it, to learn the reason of so extraordinary a happening.

Yet, when we had come close upon it, we had no means of arriving at a
knowledge of that which it portended; but walked each of us around the
tree, and were more astonished, after our circumnavigation of the great
vegetable than before.

Now, suddenly, and in the distance, I caught the far wailing that came
before the night, and abruptly, as it seemed to me, the tree wailed at
us. At that I was vastly astonished and frightened; yet, though I
retreated, I could not withdraw my gaze from the tree; but scanned it
the more intently; and, suddenly, I saw a brown, human face peering at
us from between the wrapped branches. At this, I stood very still, being
seized with that fear which renders one shortly incapable of movement.
Then, before I had possession of myself, I saw that it was of a part
with the trunk of the tree; for I could not tell where it ended and the
tree began.

Then I caught the bo'sun by the arm, and pointed; for whether it was a
part of the tree or not, it was a work of the devil; but the bo'sun, on
seeing it, ran straightway so close to the tree that he might have
touched it with his hand, and I found myself beside him. Now, George, who
was on the bo'sun's other side, whispered that there was another face,
not unlike to a woman's, and, indeed, so soon as I perceived it, I saw
that the tree had a second excrescence, most strangely after the face of
a woman. Then the bo'sun cried out with an oath, at the strangeness of
the thing, and I felt the arm, which I held, shake somewhat, as it might
be with a deep emotion. Then, far away, I heard again the sound of the
wailing and, immediately, from among the trees about us, there came
answering wails and a great sighing. And before I had time to be more
than aware of these things, the tree wailed again at us. And at that, the
bo'sun cried out suddenly that he knew; though of what it was that he
_knew_ I had at that time no knowledge. And, immediately, he began with
his cutlass to strike at the tree before us, and to cry upon God to blast
it; and lo! at his smiting a very fearsome thing happened, for the