Now the black man became the attacking party, and with the keen-edged knife began to slash right and left at the clinging tentacles, several more of which had by this time risen from the water, and were endeavoring to seize him. He fought so savagely, and with such effect, that finally the monster, having lost five of his arms, sank sullenly from their sight beneath the discolored waters.
For several minutes after their enemy had disappeared they watched apprehensively for his return, dreading a renewal of the attack. Much of their trawl had run out during the struggle, and now, making a tub fast to it, they tossed it overboard, and while Breeze held up an oar as a signal for the schooner to come to them, Nimbus began to row towards her.
“What do you think it was, Nimbus?” Breeze asked, at length.
“Don’ know. Nebber see’d notting like um in all my sailin’. Mus’ be um debbil-fish.”
Although Nimbus had never heard of Victor Hugo, he had applied to his late enemy the same name given it by the great French writer, the “devil-fish,” which is so wonderfully described in the “Toilers of the Sea.”
“Well, I think it was a sea-serpent,” said Breeze, “and I’m not sure but what there were half a dozen of them, too.”
When Captain Coffin heard their story, and saw the portions of the monster that still remained in the dory, he fully realized the peril they had been in, and congratulated them upon their escape from the embrace of a giant cuttle-fish. He measured the largest of the arms that Nimbus had cut from the creature’s body. It was bloodless, and composed entirely of gristle, and from its length the skipper concluded the creature must have measured twenty feet from tip to tip of two of its arms.
“But what kind of a beast was it?” asked Breeze. “It had big eyes, and seemed to be swimming in ink, but I could not see any tail or fins.”
“No, it did not have any. Its body was simply a round, leathery sack, about as big as a medium-sized squash. It had a horny beak like a parrot’s, and could have given you an ugly bite if it had got hold of you. The ink that it threw out was the sepia of commerce, from which India-ink is made. The creature was the giant squid, or octopus. He had eight arms, and but for your knife would undoubtedly have dragged you both to the bottom of the ocean.”
“Do they often attack people?” asked Breeze.