Both the Professor and Stanley merely stared dully at me. I babbled of what I had seen.
"A man! A human looking thing, anyway! Arms and a head! A man inside a fish's spined hide—like armor!"
They looked pityingly at me. The Professor laid his hand on my shoulder.
"Now, now," he soothed, "don't go to pieces—"
"I tell you I saw it!" I shouted. Then, shrinking from the hysterical loudness of my own voice, I lowered my tone. "Something that looks human has occupied some of those prickly, six-foot shells. I saw arms—and a man's head! I swear it!"
"Nonsense! How could a human being stand the cold, the pressure—"
Here I happened to glance at the wall of the shell through which the searchlight shone.
"Look! See for yourself!"
Squarely in the rays of the light showed a head, projecting from one of the shells and capped with a wide flat helmet of horned bone.