o the horror
awaiting.

He leaned forward tensely as a sound reached his ears. A ghostly echo
of a sound, like the softest of smooth, slipping fabric upon hard
steel. And as he listened, before his staring eyes, a something came
between him and the lighted yacht.

It wavered and swung in the darkness. It was formless, uncertain of
outline, and it swung in the night out beyond the ship's rail till it
suddenly neared, waved high overhead, and the cold light of the stars
shone in pale reflection from an enormous, staring eye.

It surmounted a serpentine form that took shape in the dim radiance
without and came lower in undulating folds to crash heavily upon the
deck.

* * * * *

Thorpe's hand was upon the wireless key. He had wanted to warn off the
yacht, but not till the thud of the creature on the bare deck proved
its reality could he force his cold fingers to press the key.

Then, fast as his inexperience allowed, he called frantically for the
_Adelaide_. He spelled her name, over and over.... Would the sleepy
operator never answer?

The _Bennington_ broke in one. "Is that you, Thorpe? What is up?" they
demanded.

But Thorpe kept up his slow spelling of the yacht's name. He must get
a warning to them! Then he realized that the _Bennington_ could do it
better.

"_Bennington_," he called, "_Adelaide_ approaching. I am attacked.
Warn them off. Warn them--" His frantic, hissing dots and dashes died
immediately. Beneath his feet the _Nagasaki Maru_ was rolling again,
swinging free to the lift and thrust of the swells beneath.

"Good God!" he shouted aloud in his lonely cabin. "It's gone for the
yacht. _Adelaide_--turn north--full speed--" he clicked off on a slow,
stuttering key. "Head north. You are being attacked!" He groaned again
as he saw the _Adelaide's_ shining ports swing away from the safety of
the north; the ship broached broadside to the waves and came slowly to
a stop.

"_Bennington_," he radioed. "Brent--it has got the _Adelaide_.
Help--hurry! I am going over."

He tore wildly at the barred door, and he made a dash across the deck
to slip sprawling in a heap against the rail where the slimy traces of
the recent visitor stretched glistening on the deck.

* * * * *

How he lowered the boat Thorpe never knew. But he knew there was one
that the men from the _Bennington_ had swung over the side, and tore
madly at the tackle to let the b