d not to work at the divided log, and kept me with him as helper.
Thus, within the next hour, we had a length, maybe some four inches in
diameter, split off the whole length of one of the halves, and with this
he was very well content; though it seemed but a very little result for
so much labor.

By this time the dusk was upon us, and the men, having made an end of
weed carrying, were returned to us, and stood about, waiting for the
bo'sun to go into camp. At this moment, the man the bo'sun had sent to
gather shellfish, returned, and he had a great crab upon his spear, which
he had spitted through the belly. This creature could not have been less
than a foot across the back, and had a very formidable appearance; yet it
proved to be a most tasty matter for our supper, when it had been placed
for a while in boiling water.

Now so soon as this man was returned, we made at once for the camp,
carrying with us the piece of timber which we had hewn from the topmast.
By this time it was quite dusk, and very strange amid the great fungi as
we struck across the upper edge of the valley to the opposite beach.
Particularly, I noticed that the hateful, mouldy odor of these monstrous
vegetables was more offensive than I had found it to be in the daytime;
though this may be because I used my nose the more, in that I could not
use my eyes to any great extent.

We had gotten halfway across the top of the valley, and the gloom was
deepening steadily, when there stole to me upon the calmness of the
evening air, a faint smell; something quite different from that of the
surrounding fungi. A moment later I got a great whiff of it, and was near
sickened with the abomination of it; but the memory of that foul thing
which had come to the side of the boat in the dawn-gloom, before we
discovered the island, roused me to a terror beyond that of the sickness
of my stomach; for, suddenly, I knew what manner of thing it was that had
beslimed my face and throat upon the previous night, and left its hideous
stench lingering in my nostrils. And with the knowledge, I cried out to
the bo'sun to make haste, for there were demons with us in the valley.
And at that, some of the men made to run; but he bade them, in a very
grim voice, stay where they were, and keep well together, else would they
be attacked and overcome, straggled all among the fungi in the dark. And
this, being, I doubt not, as much in fear of the rounding dark as of the
bo'sun, they did,