5. Gilliatt clutched the projections of the rock, and stretched out to observe where it shelved away under the water. As he suspected, there was an opening there in which the creature had evidently taken refuge. It was more than a crevice, it was a kind of porch. The sea entered beneath it, but was not deep. The bottom was visible, covered with large pebbles. The pebbles were green, and clothed with conferva, indicating that they were never dry. Holding his knife between his teeth, Gilliatt descended, by the help of feet and hands, from the upper part of the escarpment, and leaped into the water. It reached almost to his shoulders.

6. He made his way through the porch, and found himself in a blind passage, with a roof in the form of a rude arch over his head. The walls were polished and slippery. The crab was nowhere visible. He gained his feet, and advanced in daylight growing fainter, so that he began to lose the power to distinguish objects. At about fifteen. paces the vaulted roof ended overhead. He had pene

trated beyond the blind passage. There was here more space, and consequently more daylight. The pupils of his eyes, moreover, had dilated. His vision became clearer and clearer. He was astonished. He saw before his eyes a vaulted roof, vegetation rich with gems, and at the farther end an altar-like stone. He took little notice of these details, but their impression was in his mind.

7. He observed before him, at a certain height in the wall, a crevice, which, from the point where he now stood, appeared inaccessible. Near the molded arch he saw low dark grottoes, a sort of caves within the cavern. The entrance to the nearest was out of the water, and easily approachable. Nearer still than this recess, he noticed,

above the level of the water and within reach of his hand, a horizontal fissure. It seemed to him probable that the crab had taken refuge there, and he plunged his hand in as far as he was able, and groped about in that dusky aperture.

8. Suddenly he felt himself seized by the arm. A strange, indescribable horror thrilled through him. Some living thing — thin, rough, flat, cold, slimy - had twisted itself round his naked arm, in the dark depth below. It crept upward towards his chest. Its pressure was like a tightening cord, its steady persistence like that of a screw. less than a moment some mysterious spiral form had passed round his wrist and elbow, and had reached his shoulder. A sharp point penetrated beneath the arm-pit.

In

9. Gilliatt recoiled, but he had scarcely power to move. He was, as it were, nailed to the place. With his left hand, which was disengaged, he seized his knife, which he still held between his teeth, and with that hand holding the knife he supported himself against the rocks, while he made a desperate effort to withdraw his arm.

He succeeded in only disturbing his persecutor, which wound itself still tighter. It was supple as leather, strong as steel, cold as night.

10. A second form-sharp, elongated, and narrow — issued out of the crevice, like a tongue out of monstrous jaws. It seemed to lick his naked body; then, suddenly stretching out, became longer and thinner, as it crept over his skin and wound itself round him. At the same time a terrible sense of pain, comparable to nothing he had ever known, compelled all his muscles to contract. He felt upon his skin a number of flat, rounded points. It seemed as if innumerable suckers had fastened to his flesh and were about to drink his blood.

11. A third long, undulating shape issued from the hole in the rock, seemed to feel its way about his body, lashed round his ribs like a cord, and fixed itself there.

Agony when at its height is mute: Gilliatt uttered no cry. There was sufficient light for him to see the repulsive forms which had entangled themselves about him.

12. A fourth ligature — but this one swift as an arrow darted towards his stomach, and wound around him there. It was impossible to sever or tear away the slimy bands which were twisted tightly round his body, and were adhering by a number of points. Each of the points was the focus of frightful and singular pangs. It was as if numberless small mouths were devouring him at the same time.

13. A fifth long, slimy, riband-shaped strip issued from the hole. It passed over the others, and wound itself tightly round his chest. The compression increased his sufferings; he could scarcely breathe. These living thongs were pointed at their extremities, but broadened like the blade of a sword towards its hilt. All belonged evidently to the same center. They crept and glided about him; he felt the strange points of pressure, which seemed to him like mouths, change their places from time to time.

14. Suddenly a large, round, flattened, glutinous mass issued from the crevice. It was the center; the five thongs were attached to it like spokes to the nave of a wheel. On the opposite side of this disgusting monster appeared the commencement of three other tentacles, the ends of which remained under the rock. In the middle of this slimy mass appeared two eyes. The eyes were fixed on Gilliatt. He recognized the devil-fish.

15. It is difficult for those who have not seen it to believe the existence of the devil-fish. If terror were the object of its creation, nothing could be imagined more perfect than the devil-fish. The octopus is the sea-vampire. The swimmer who, attracted by the beauty of the spot,

ventures among breakers in the open sea,-where the still waters hide the splendors of the deep,- in the hollows of unfrequented rocks, in unknown caverns abounding in sea-plants, testacea, and crustacea,-under the deep portals of the ocean, runs the risk of meeting it. The monster was the inhabitant of the grotto - the terrible genius of the place a kind of somber demon of the water. All the splendors of the cavern existed for it alone. Is it possible to imagine that secret ambush? No bird would brood, no egg would burst to life, no flower would dare to open, no heart to love, no spirit to soar, under the influence of that apparition of evil watching with sinister patience in the dusk.

16. Gilliatt had thrust his arm deep into the opening; the monster had snapped at it. It held him fast, as the spider holds the fly. He was in the water up to his belt; his naked feet clutching the slippery roundness of the huge stones at the bottom; his right arm bound and rendered powerless by the flat coils of the long tentacles of the creature, and his body almost hidden under the folds and cross folds of this horrible bandage. Of the eight arms of the devil-fish, three adhered to the rock, while five encircled Gilliatt. In this way, clinging to the granite on the one hand, and on the other to its human prey, it enchained him to the rock. Two hundred and fifty suckers were upon him, tormenting him with agony and loathing. He was grasped by gigantic hands, the fingers of which were each nearly a yard long, and furnished inside with living blisters eating into the flesh.

17. It is impossible to tear one's self from the folds of the devil-fish the attempt ends only in a firmer grasp; the monster clings with more determined force. Its effort