l cry, and then again the silence. Yet, though I kept very
quiet, there came no further sound, and I was about to re-seat myself,
when, afar off in that strange wilderness, there flashed out a sudden
flame of fire.

Now upon seeing fire in the midst of so much lonesomeness, I was as one
amazed, and could do naught but stare. Then, my judgment returning to me,
I stooped and waked the bo'sun; for it seemed to me that this was a
matter for his attention. He, after staring at it awhile, declared that
he could see the shape of a vessel's hull beyond the flame; but,
immediately, he was in doubt, as, indeed, I had been all the while. And
then, even as we peered, the light vanished, and though we waited for the
space of some minutes; watching steadfastly, there came no further sight
of that strange illumination.

From now until the dawn, the bo'sun remained awake with me, and we talked
much upon that which we had seen; yet could come to no satisfactory
conclusion; for it seemed impossible to us that a place of so much
desolation could contain any living being. And then, just as the dawn was
upon us, there loomed up a fresh wonder--the hull of a great vessel maybe
a couple or three score fathoms in from the edge of the weed. Now the
wind was still very light, being no more than an occasional breath, so
that we went past her at a drift, thus the dawn had strengthened
sufficiently to give to us a clear sight of the stranger, before we had
gone more than a little past her. And now I perceived that she lay full
broadside on to us, and that her three masts were gone close down to the
deck. Her side was streaked in places with rust, and in others a green
scum overspread her; but it was no more than a glance that I gave at any
of those matters; for I had spied something which drew all my
attention--great leathery arms splayed all across her side, some of them
crooked inboard over the rail, and then, low down, seen just above the
weed, the huge, brown, glistening bulk of so great a monster as ever I
had conceived. The bo'sun saw it in the same instant and cried out in a
hoarse whisper that it was a mighty devilfish, and then, even as he
spoke, two of the arms flickered up into the cold light of the dawn, as
though the creature had been asleep, and we had waked it. At that, the
bo'sun seized an oar, and I did likewise, and, so swiftly as we dared,
for fear of making any unneedful noise, we pulled the boat to a safer
distance. From there