time working on shore."

He pulled thoughtfully at his cigarette and blew a light cloud into
the air.

"I had leave for a month once; and like an ass I prepared to spend it
in a hunting-trip among the Everglades."

He crossed his lean legs and gazed meditatively at his cigarette.

"I believe," he went on, "that we penetrated the Everglades farther
than any white man who ever lived to return. There's nothing very
dismal about the Everglades--the greater part, I mean. You get high
and low hummock, marshes, creeks, lakes, and all that. If you get
lost, you're a goner. If you acquire fever, you're as well off as the
seraphim--and not a whit better. There are the usual animals
there--bears (little black fellows) lynxes, deer, panthers,
alligators, and a few stray crocodiles. As for snakes, of course
they're there, moccasins a-plenty, some rattlers, but, after all, not
as many snakes as one finds in Alabama, or even northern Florida and
Georgia.

"The Seminoles won't help you--won't even talk to you. They're a
sullen pack--but not murderous, as far as I know. Beyond their inner
limits lie the unknown regions."

He bit the wet end from his cigarette.

"I went there," he said; "I came out as soon as I could."

"Why?"

"Well--for one thing, my companion died of fright."

"Fright? What at?"

"Well, there's something in there."

"What?"

He fixed a penetrating gaze on me. "I don't know, Mr. Gilland."

"Did you see anything to frighten you?" I insisted.

"No, but I felt something." He dropped his cigarette and ground it
into the sand viciously. "To cut it short," he said, "I am most
unwillingly led to believe that there are--creatures--of some sort in
the Everglades--living creatures quite as large as you or I--and that
they are perfectly transparent--as transparent as a colorless
jellyfish."

Instantly the veiled import of Professor Farrago's letter was made
clear to me. He, too, believed that.

"It embarrasses me like the devil to say such a thing," continued
Rowan, digging in the sand with his spurred heels. "It seems so--so
like a whopping lie--it seems so childish and ridiculous--so cursed
cheap! But I fled; and there you are. I might add," he said,
indifferently, "that I have the ordinary portion of courage allotted
to normal men."

"But what do you believe these--these animals to be?" I asked,
fascinated.

"I don't know." An obstinate look came into his eyes. "I don't know,
and I absolutely refus