t's the only word for it. The
next instant she was off the bed, her face a perfect mask of hate and
agony.

"She came at me, hands clutching and clawing, making odd murmuring or
mewing sounds in her throat. It was then that I noticed for the first
time that her hands were webbed!"

* * * * *

"Webbed?" I asked, startled.

"Webbed," nodded Mercer solemnly. "As are her feet. But listen, Taylor.
I was amazed, and not a little rattled when she came for me. I ran
through the French windows out into the patio. For a moment she ran
after me, rather awkwardly and heavily, but swiftly, nevertheless. Then
she saw the pool.

"Apparently forgetting that I existed, she leaped into the water, and as
I approached a moment later I could see her breathing deeply and
gratefully, a smile of relief upon her features, as she lay upon the
bottom of the pool. Breathing, Taylor, on the bottom of the pool! Under
eight feet of water!"

"And then what, Mercer?" I reminded him, as he paused, apparently lost
in thought.

"I tried to find out more about her. I put on my bathing suit and dived
into the pool. Well, she came at me like a shark, quick as a flash, her
teeth showing, her hands tearing like claws through the water. I turned,
but not quickly enough to entirely escape. See?" Mercer threw back the
dressing robe, and I saw a ragged tear in his bathing suit on his left
side, near the waist. Through the rent three deep, jagged scratches were
clearly visible.

* * * * *

"She managed to claw me, just once," Mercer resumed, wrapping the robe
about him again. "Then I got out and called on Carson for help. I put
him into a bathing suit, and we both endeavored to corner her. Carson
got two bad scratches, and one rather serious bite that I have bandaged.
I have a number of lacerations, but I didn't fare so badly as Carson
because I am faster in the water than he is.

"The harder we tried, the more determined I became. She would sit there,
calm and placid, until one of us entered the water. Then she became a
veritable fury. It was maddening.

"At last I thought of you. I phoned, and here we are!"

"But, Mercer, it's a nightmare!" I protested. We moved out of the room.
"Nothing human can live under water and breathe water, as she does!"

Mercer paused a moment, staring at me oddly.

"The human race," he said gravely, "came up out of sea. The human race
as we know it. Some m