THE HUMAN OCTOPUS
SNOOPS AROUND
Watched by the admiring eyes of Dragonfel and his followers the Human Octopus wriggled and squirmed his way out of the enchanter’s palace. And, whether he flew through the air, or swam through the waters, to Queen Titania’s fairy kingdom, using his tentacles as propellers, is a matter for conjecture. But, at any rate, he got there with all tentacles. Whenever his suspicions were aroused, or there was the slightest doubt, he would hastily secrete himself among shrubbery or weeds, with which his mottled green sides proved a perfect match, so that as a whole he blended in admirably with the vegetation.
He did not have a heart, a rather sluggish liver performing for him instead the necessary functions of the other organ, and, as he approached Queen Titania’s palace with due caution, it thumped with torpid pleasure.
If there was anything he liked above all others it was sneaking, and the job which Dragonfel had given him presented most attractive possibilities.
Noting a gurgling brook in the proximity of the portcullis, he took great pains to soak the round pad-like ends of his tentacles in water so that when they were applied to a flat surface they would adhere through atmospheric pressure sufficiently to bear his weight.
In such a manner, when no one was looking, did the wily rascal climb up the high garden-wall and down the other side, wriggling and squirming with ill-concealed chuckles toward the palace.
Only the magic dove that Euphrosyne had left, which was preening itself on the edge of a fountain’s basin, saw him, with the result that it was strongly tempted to fly back to the Goddess of Mirth forthwith.
