hump.

The scene assumed some of the aspects of a bad movie comedy. The
background was an out-of-focus blur, although Farmer was dimly conscious
of motion in it somewhere--something else breaking the surface of the
water as it emerged. In the foreground, the boat and its occupants were
sharply etched, but seemed to have gone into slow motion.

The nonapus crept forward ponderously, and Farmer searched dazedly for a
weapon. It was Ray who first started stumbling in the direction of the
boathook, but John Andrew, in a sudden fit of bravery, shoved past him
and grabbed the fragile-looking thing from its cleats.

He swung to face the monster with a sick feeling in his stomach, and got
another surprise. The thing had stopped moving. Straddling the rail
behind it, and similarly dripping, was a--_migawd_!

It--he--looked almost like a man, but that only made the difference
worse. The details resolved as Farmer stared at him. The oddness about
head and shoulders became finny crests; what had looked at first like a
red skin-tight costume became a scaly hide. Farmer realized with a shock
that the creature wasn't wearing anything.

Farmer crouched. The point of the boathook wavered, aimed first at the
nonapus, then at the fishman. To the editor, both were alien--but he
couldn't decide which one was more dangerous. For a long moment, neither
of them advanced, and he wondered if they could really be frightened of
his puny weapon.

He doubted it. He was beginning to notice, among other things, that the
nonapus was more fearsome than it had seemed at first--in addition to
nine tentacles, claws, fangs and antenna became apparent. So did the big
glassy-red disks of the eyes--and Farmer aimed the point of the hook at
one of them, started to thrust.

It was wrenched from his hands and forced downward to stick quivering in
the deck. The development took Farmer completely unawares. Neither of
the aliens had moved; it was Judge Ray who had disarmed him.

* * * * *

Judge Ray was now frantically trying to remove his diving helmet again.
Excitement made his motions ineffective, and he signaled for Farmer to
help him, then continued to fumble with the fastenings himself. John
Andrew turned, feeling completely doomed, to aid the man, and they
started getting in each other's way and slowing down the operation even
more.

They finally succeeded, though; the helmet swung back, and Ray promptly
shoved Farme