every swelling giving out a
phosphorescent glow, with every contraction darkening to a faint red
color. Then came a group of others; then a second living lamp; later
another and another: they were evenly distributed, and illumined the
tunnel.

There were monstrous shapes, living but inert, barely pulsing with
dormant life, as much larger than himself as the dog-headed kind were
smaller--huge, unwieldy, disk-shaped masses of tissue, light gray at
the margins, dark red in the middle. They were in the majority, and
blocked the view. Darting and wriggling between and about them were
horrible forms, some larger than himself, others smaller. There were
serpents, who swam with a serpent's motion. Some were serpents in form,
but were curled rigidly into living corkscrews, and by sculling with
their tails screwed their way through the water with surprising
rapidity. Others were barrel- or globe-shaped, with swarming tentacles.
With these they pulled themselves along, in and out through the crowd,
or, bringing their squirming appendages rearward,--each an individual
snake,--used them as propellers, and swam. There were creatures in the
form of long cylinders, some with tentacles by which they rolled along
like a log in a tideway; others, without appendages, were as inert and
helpless as the huge red-and-gray disks. He saw four ball-shaped
creatures float by, clinging together; then a group of eight, then one
of twelve. All these, to the extent of their volition, seemed to be in
a state of extreme agitation and excitement.

The cause was apparent. The tunnel from which he had come was still
discharging the dog-faced animals by the thousand, and he knew now the
business they were on. It was war--war to the death. They flung
themselves with furious energy into the parade, fighting and biting all
they could reach. A hundred at a time would pounce on one of the large
red-and-gray creatures, almost hiding it from view; then, and before
they had passed out of sight, they would fall off and disperse, and the
once living victim would come with them, in parts. The smaller, active
swimmers fled, but if one was caught, he suffered; a quick dart, a
tangle of tentacles, an embrace of the wicked flippers, a bite--and a
dead body floated on.

And now into the battle came a ponderous engine of vengeance and
defense. A gigantic, lumbering, pulsating creature, white and
translucent but for the dark, active brain showing through its walls,
horri