to grope so
surely in the dark.

The eye narrowed as the gaping, fleshy jaws distended, and Robert
Thorpe, in a flash that galvanized him to action, was aware that his
fight for life was on. He fired blindly from the hip, and the recoil
of the heavy gun almost tore it from his hands. But he knew he had
aimed true, and the toothless, seeking jaws whipped in agony back into
the sea.

There were other arms whose eyes were searching the stern of the
yacht. Thorpe plunged frenziedly down a companionway for the cabin he
knew was Ruth Allaire's. Was he in time? Could he save her if he found
her? His mind was in a turmoil of half-formed plans as he rushed madly
down the corridor to find the body of the girl a limp huddle across
the threshold of her cabin.

* * * * *

She was alive; he knew it as he swung her soft body across one
shoulder and staggered with his burden up the stairs. If he could only
breathe! His throat was tight and strangling with the reeking
putrescence in the air. And before his eyes was a picture of the
strong oak bars of his own retreat. Somehow, some way, he must get
back to the abandoned ship.

An eye detected him as he came on deck, and he dropped the limp body
of the girl at his feet as he swung his rifle toward the glowing light
within the opening jaws. The sucking discs cupped and wrinkled in
dread readiness in the fleshy, toothless opening. He emptied the
magazine into the head, though he knew this was only a feeler and a
feeder for a still more horrible mouth in the monstrous body that rose
and fell tremendously in the dark waters beyond. But it was typical of
Robert Thorpe that even in the horror and frenzy of the moment he
rammed another clip of cartridges into his rifle before he stooped to
again raise the prostrate figure of Ruth Allaire.

The forward deck for the moment was clear; it rose high with the
weight of the writhing, twisting arms that weighed down the stern of
the yacht where the crew had taken refuge.

To think of helping them was worse than folly--he dismissed the
thought as another great eye came over the rail. Once more he used the
gun, then lowered the girl to the waiting boat, and cast off and rowed
with the stealthiest of strokes into the dark.

* * * * *

Behind him were whipping points of light above the white brilliance of
the yacht _Adelaide_. The boat was tossing in great waves that came
from beyond