was very strange. But here is something no less so!"

With this he handed me a report which he had received from Boston, on
a subject of which the evening papers had just begun to apprise their
readers. While I read it, Mr. Ward was summoned from the room. I
seated myself by the window and studied with extreme attention the
matter of the report.

For some days the waters along the coast of Maine, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts had been the scene of an appearance which no one could
exactly describe. A moving body would appear amid the waters, some
two or three miles off shore, and go through rapid evolutions. It
would flash for a while back and forth among the waves and then dart
out of sight.

The body moved with such lightning speed that the best telescopes
could hardly follow it. Its length did not seem to exceed thirty
feet. Its cigar-shaped form and greenish color, made it difficult to
distinguish against the background of the ocean. It had been most
frequently observed along the coast between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia.
From Providence, from Boston, from Portsmouth, and from Portland
motor boats and steam launches had repeatedly attempted to approach
this moving body and even to give it chase. They could not get
anywhere near it. Pursuit seemed useless. It darted like an arrow
beyond the range of view.

Naturally, widely differing opinions were held as to the nature of
this object. But no hypothesis rested on any secure basis. Seamen
were as much at a loss as others. At first sailors thought it must be
some great fish, like a whale. But it is well known that all these
animals come to the surface with a certain regularity to breathe, and
spout up columns of mingled air and water. Now, this strange animal,
if it was an animal, had never "blown" as the whalers say; nor, had
it ever made any noises of breathing. Yet if it were not one of these
huge marine mammals, how was this unknown monster to be classed? Did
it belong among the legendary dwellers in the deep, the krakens, the
octopuses, the leviathans, the famous sea-serpents?

At any rate, since this monster, whatever it was, had appeared along
the New England shores, the little fishing-smacks and pleasure boats
dared not venture forth. Wherever it appeared the boats fled to the
nearest harbor, as was but prudent. If the animal was of a ferocious
character, none cared to await its attack.

As to the large ships and coast steamers, they had nothing to fear
f