Page 12 (1/1)
The octopod has only been described once, in stone, by a Japanese artist The statue is still extant, and it is the most terrible masterpiece of sculpture ever executed by hu on a low-tide beach, and has been caught Thewith his free arrip The eyes of the octopod are fixed upon the ubrious eyes, but steadfast and fixed
Another whip-lash shot out of the water in a shower of spray, and seized Dick by the left thigh At the saht eye of the elatinous carcass till the spear-point dirled and splintered against the rock At the same moment the water of the pool became black as ink, the bands around him relaxed, and he was free
E to hi him He clasped her with his left arm round her body, as if to protect her, but it was a e, and uttering hoarse cries, he plunged the broken spear again and again into the depths of the pool, seeking utterly to destroy the enerip Then slowly he came to himself, and wiped his forehead, and looked at the broken spear in his hand
"Beast!" he said "Did you see its eyes? Did you see its eyes? I wish it had a hundred eyes, and I had a hundred spears to drive into the hysterically, and praising hiht that he had rescued her from death, not she him
The sun had nearly vanished, and he led her back to where the dinghy wason his trousers on the road He picked up the dead fish he had speared; and as he rowed her back across the lagoon, he talked and laughed, recounting the incidents of the fight, taking all the glory of the thing to hinore the important part she had played in it
This was not froratitude, but simply from the fact that for the last five years he had been the be-all and end-all of their tiny community--the Iht of thanking her for handing hi it ho neither thanks nor praise Everything she had came from him: she was his shadow and his slave He was her sun