to retain
my position, I slashed down with great fury, being maddened by the pain
and the mortal fear which the creature had put upon me; yet I was not
immediately free of the brute; for it caught my sword blade; but I
snatched it away before it could take a proper hold, mayhaps cutting its
feelers somewhat thereby; though of this I cannot be sure, for they
seemed not to grip around a thing, but to _suck_ to it; then, in a
moment, by a lucky blow, I maimed it, so that it loosed me, and I was
able to get back into some condition of security.

And from this onwards, we were free from molestation; though we had no
knowledge but that the quietness of the weed men did but portend a
fresh attack, and so, at last, it came to the dawn; and in all this
time the moon came not to our help, being quite hid by the clouds which
now covered the whole arc of the sky, making the dawn of a very
desolate aspect.

And so soon as there was a sufficiency of light, we examined the valley;
but there were nowhere any of the weed men, no! nor even any of their
dead for it seemed that they had carried off all such and their wounded,
and so we had no opportunity to make an examination of the monsters by
daylight. Yet, though we could not come upon their dead, all about the
edges of the cliffs was blood and slime, and from the latter there came
ever the hideous stench which marked the brutes; but from this we
suffered little, the wind carrying it far away to leeward, and filling
our lungs with sweet and wholesome air.

Presently, seeing that the danger was past, the bo'sun called us to the
center fire, on which burnt still the remnants of the great bow, and here
we discovered for the first time that one of the men was gone from us. At
that, we made search about the hilltop, and afterwards in the valley and
about the island; but found him not.

XIV

In Communication

Now of the search which we made through the valley for the body of
Tompkins, that being the name of the lost man, I have some doleful
memories. But first, before we left the camp, the bo'sun gave us all a
very sound tot of the rum, and also a biscuit apiece, and thereafter we
hasted down, each man holding his weapon readily. Presently, when we were
come to the beach which ended the valley upon the seaward side, the
bo'sun led us along to the bottom of the hill, where the precipices came
down into the softer stuff which covered the valley, and here we made a
careful sear