one o' they two
long arms in your bedroom window, and----"

"'Tis in the attic!"

"Never mind that. He could put it in the window and feel around for your
bed, and twist that arm around you, and----"

"I'd cut it off!"

"Anyhow, that's how long they is. And if he knowed you was there, and
wanted you, he could get you. But I'm not so sure that he _would_ want
you. He couldn't see you, anyhow; and if he could, he'd rather have a
good fat salmon."

Bobby shuddered as he looked at the tiny squid in his hand, and thought
of the dreadful possibilities in one a thousand times as big.

"You leave them alone, and they'll leave you alone," Billy went on. "But
if you once make them mad, they can dart their arms out like lightning.
'Tis time to get, then!"

"I'm goin' to keep an ax in my punt after this," said Bobby, "and if I
sees an arm slippin' out of the water----"

"'Tis as big as your thigh!" cried Billy.

"Never mind. If I sees it I'll be able to cut it off."

"If I sees one," said Billy, "I'm goin' to cotch it. It said in the book
that they was worth a lot to some people. And if I can sell mine I'm
goin' to have a new punt."

But although Bobby Lot and Billy Topsail kept a sharp lookout for giant
squids wherever they went, they were not rewarded. There was not so much
as a sign of one. By and by, so bold did they become, they hunted for
one in the twilight of summer days, even daring to pry into the deepest
coves and holes in the Ruddy Cove rocks.

Notwithstanding the ridicule he had to meet, Bobby never ventured out in
the punt without a sharp ax. He could not tell what time he would need
it, he said; and thus he formed the habit of making sure that it was in
its place before casting off from the wharf.

As autumn drew near they found other things to think of; the big squids
passed out of mind altogether.

"Wonderful queer," Billy said, long afterwards, "how things happen when
you isn't expectin' them!"

* * * * *

One day late in September--it was near evening of a gray day--Billy
Topsail and Bobby Lot were returning in Bobby's punt from Birds' Nest
Islands, whither they had gone to hunt a group of seals, reported to
have taken up a temporary residence there. They had a mighty,
muzzle-loading, flintlock gun; and they were so delighted with the noise
it made that they had exhausted their scanty provision of powder and
lead long before the seals were in sight.

They had