Amazing Stories, Vol. 3, No. 2 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE OCTOPUS CYCLE pose we could get an escort? I need not conceal from you that this big-game hunt is likely to be a serious business. Any aul that devours live men...” | “The commandant and I were at St. Cyr together,” replied Duperret. “He will doubtless appoint a lieu- tenant and a demi- -compatly of African chasseurs to assist us.’ CHAPTER III lieutenant, Dubosc by name, making the best of insufficient pup tents and canned French sausage by a dank, slow stream a few miles out of Fort Dau- phin. Around them lay or squatted a perspiring group of black soldiers in the uniform of the Chasseurs @Afrique, while round them again, further from the sun of the white men’s presence, were as many natives, equally sable of hue, and with no uniforms at all. These ‘were the guides lent by Diouma-Mbobo, silent and somewhat scared men, for that portion of the jungle ‘had earned a bad reputation from the repeated disap- ‘ pearances. = Weyl was annoyed. “If we only knew what we were looking for and where to find it,” he said to Duperret that evening, “but here we are three days out, with our labor for our pains. Hunting for one animal in this jungle is like the old needle and haystack saying.” 4 “Yes, and-I’m afraid for the guides,” the French- man had answered. “They’ ll desert unless they are given something to do.” 4 Night found them as restless as the guides. Weyl woke to a sense of something impending, looked out and saw only the calm sentries speaking in low tones as ‘they encountered each other at the end of their rounds. He felt reassured, and dropped off into another hour or two of slumber punctuated by fierce dreams, woke ‘again and saw a moonlit shadow on the flap of his tent. “Raoul!” he called softly. The Frenchman bent and entered. He was fully dressed. _ “Nerves keep you awake, too?” been awake before, but everything’s quiet. ‘are you dressed?” “T have a premonition. Also, I hear something un- ‘usual. You hear that strange whistling? -No, you would not. You are not used to jungle noises. To me it is very much to notice. Something . . =. and he ‘looked at his friend, who, though in a strictly unofficial manner, was recognized as commander of the expedi- tion. ‘Shall we rouse the soldiers?” he questioned. “They: I need sleep if we're to soareh all day,” Weyl answered. “But lam thinking we will not need to march. How- ever—” A WEEK later found them with a dapper French said Weyl. “I’ve But why = through the open tent flap. ——— = - Jn an instant he was on his feet, altnost tearing the tent from its pegs, a half cry escaping his lips that caused Weyl to leap up beside him, seizing the ‘revolver that lay by his hand. : _ Three, four, half a dozen snaleclice arms, rageteris : ous in the moonlight, hovered for an instant. over the Raoul was about to dismiss his feeling aS fancy and threw another glance over his: shoulder : heads of two sentries who had met at the edge of the trees, and before they had comprehended their danger, before they could be warned, they were gripped, lifted from their feet and their cries stifled before they reached the gloom of the branches fully ten feet above. Weyl, with a horror such as he had never felt be- fore, seemed to clutch at his throat, fired rapidly into the tree. Something dropped with a crash of leaves; a veritable chorus of whistlings and swishings rose around the camp, and in the tents and along the sentry line there were sudden lights and activity, shouts of “Om vive?” “Aux armes!” and the thick note of a hastily blown bugle as its owner was roused from sleep. Men ran from their tents to stand gazing. ‘Raoul !” shouted the American. “It’s here! The machine gun!” and, pistol in hand, in his sleeping garments, he dashed for the tree. He glanced up. A subdued rustling gave no clue to ~ its source, nothing to shoot at, but out of the tail of — his eye he caught a glimpse of motion among the giant ferns, and the: peculiar whistling again Tecee audible. He turned, and was suddenly conscious of an insane disbelief in his senses. What he saw resembled noth- ing so much as an enormous umbrella, standing ten feet high on stiltlike, but prehensile arms, while at the point where they gathered, a huge, bulbous head rose and fell rhythmically as the thing emitted that singular, high- pitched whistle. There was something unspeakably loathsome, some touch reminiscent of putrefaction and decay about it. An,arm, like a huge snake, lifted from the ground and swung aimlessly about under the leaves. Abruptly, another it the duplicate of the first in all respects, came from behind a tree to join it, and the tvs: ee their clumsy form and lurching uneven moyemént, by ~ gan to advance toward him with a rapidityy that astonishing. a Weyl ale to the necessity of flight. He racedbactts - toward the camp, where Lieutenant Dubosc, aroused © by the shots and cries, and aware that something was impending, had formed the Senegalese in a rough, slanting anole of a line, the men facing the jungle, while peland them Diouma-Mbobo’s natives crouched - in frightened curiosity. - The American turned as he reached the line. ae hind him, into the clearing, with an odd semblance of order, came a half-dozen, a dozen, twenty of those ter- rible umbrella-like shapes, moving deliberately, but cov- ering the ground as fast as a man runs, A shot was followed by an order, a bugle note, a the irritating crash of the volley, which shaded into the rattling drum of the machine guns. When his eyes again became used to the dark after the flame of the ries, Weyl saw that the giant, shapeless beasts were -moving forward as swiftly and imperturbably as be- : Ore Had all the shots missed ?_ Another volley collapsed into a frantic and epemmone: burst of firing, as no effect was visible on the hideous: shapes that came on swiftly. Weyl aimed his revolver carefully at one bobbing — head, and the shot was drowned in a crashing chorus of fire; the beast came right on. He was dimly conscious - of shooting again rand again in a kind of frenzy at those icomicbooks.com-