"Has it a long snout and sort of a funnel at the front?" Kingsford demanded.
"Yes, sir. It's moving very fast and there's a cloud rising before it, and the cloud is disappearing into the funnel. I can hear it now. It must be closer than I thought. Lord, it's huge. The wind is much stronger now. It's getting difficult to breathe."
"And the eyes, Pierce. Can you see the eyes?"
"No, sir. But we can't breathe too well here now. It's coming closer. Closer."
We could see it now. It was moving in a direction generally toward the camp, but if it maintained its course, it would bypass us by a good distance. It was huge. Much greater than Kingsford had described, at least so it seemed. Slender at the front and tapering to a huge girth near its tail. A great billow of dust rose before its path, disappearing in the bugle-like snout. The wind increased far beyond any I'd ever known, and then I could see the eyes.
"You see, Mr. Rogers," Kingsford shouted. "It has expected us. It is grown. Six times its size, Mr. Rogers. The men of the Essex nurtured it well. Ha!"
The men at all positions were calling over the communications, but none had fired their weapons yet.
"Commence firing," Kingsford shouted his order. He turned to me. "There, Mr. Rogers. There is your Leviathan." I could barely hear him for the wind. Then I realized that it was only because we had the communications on that I could hear him at all, though he was but two feet from me.
"Stop them, Captain," I shouted. "If we don't fire, it will pass us."