was lozenge or diamond-shaped, about twenty-five feet long and
thirty feet broad, with a tail some ten feet long trailing away behind
it. The light generated by its passage through the water revealed it
sufficiently to enable the startled beholders to perceive that it was
undoubtedly a living thing of some sort, that it was propelling itself
by the movement of its wing-like sides, and that at its forward angle--
which was of course its head--it was furnished with a pair of great
goggle eyes with which it seemed to be regarding the boat intently and
not too amiably. Whether or not it was startled by the sudden flap of
the sail as the boat jibed, it is of course impossible to say, but, be
that as it may, as the boat suddenly swerved away from above it the huge
creature rose with a rush to the surface and sprang right out of the
water to a height of some twelve feet, and, flapping its enormous wings
like a great bird, _flew right over the boat_, coming down on the other
side of her, at a distance of some four or five fathoms, with a _boom_
like the sound of a gigantic drum, and a disturbance of the sea so
violent that it all but swamped the boat. Five times it soared into the
air in this extraordinary fashion, luckily descending each time at a
greater distance from the boat, and then it disappeared altogether, to
the great relief of the voyagers.

"Looked as much like a giant thornback as anything I ever saw," remarked
George, when at length the creature had freed them from its presence and
their astonishment had sufficiently subsided to permit of their speaking
again. "We must ask Dyer about it. I remember him telling me, some
time ago, about a thing that he once saw when he was last in these seas,
and from his description I think it must have been the same sort of
fish. He said that the Indians called it, in their own language, the
devil fish, or great sea bat, and they further told him that it is a
most dangerous monster, since it has an unpleasant trick of rising
alongside a canoe, overlapping it with one of its wings, and forcing
canoe and occupants under-water. I think it not unlikely that the brute
we just now saw may have been meditating to serve us in the same
fashion, but was somehow frightened into thinking better of it."

Twenty minutes later the trio safely arrived at the camp without further
adventure, and found all well there. The men, it seemed, had enjoyed
the day of rest, each in his own fashion,