Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 328: what you’re looking at

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

BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL. ter get into it,” and she pointed to the ship’s side above us. ‘“No,” 1 answered, as I handed her swiftly on to the ledge, and helped her down into the cave beyond, “ he might manage to break in upon us. Here we're safe for the present, at any, rate. He may try to starve us out, but it isn’t likely. After a bit, when he finds he can’t get at us, he'll shuffle away as he came,” Fidget was barking furiously, and bristling up her hair, but at the farthest end of the cavern a sludgy, dragging movement became audible, and the murky odor of the Horror clouded down to us. Looking out from under the over- hanging roof I saw a single shining. claw project over the edge of the cleft. Then the half of the pad came into view, the rock dinting its podginess. The brute swung his head over me, and parted his thin inquisitive lips al- most to a sneer. For one halting second the head was poised motionless. Then, swift as a dropping stone, it smote down at me, and I flung myself back, the evil eyes flashing past not five yards away. There they hung and_ balanced, glinting evilly at us, while the long pendant neck strained into the cleft from above. . The huge body made twilight in the cavern, swelling eagerly into the space between the rock and the ship. The muscular fore arms kneaded and crum- bled the edges of the fissure. So were we desperately imprisoned, and such was our jailer. At the farthest limit of the cave we leaned upon the rock, and looked at that wicked, weaving head. Twice be- fore had I seen it, but never in such circumstances as this. On both occasions we had been men alone. The peril had been distributed, so to speak, among us all. But witha girl, and a beautiful girl moreover, with whom I. happened to be desperately in love—to have that outrageous atrocity 319 mouthing upon her and me alone, and to feel that any accident might send her into its bestial maw—Good God! it might turn any brain. I stood between Gwen and the en- trance and tried to smile into her face. “ T wouldn’t look that way, if I were you,” said I persuasively. ‘‘ He'll take himself off directly, I hope.” Her lips were very white and they trembled unrestrainedly, but she smiled back into my eyes—a ghostly uncer- tain sort of sinile, though, I must con- fess. “TI don’t mind. Not much at least.” Then with a strained attempt to look at the humorous side of it she added, “ What an opportunity for M. Lessau- tion and his squirt.” I loved to see the pluck of her, and answered cheerfully. “Garlicke will be distracting the brute’s attention directly with that Manlicher rifle,” said I. “ I happen to know he took it up with him when we moved camp, for use in just such a pos- sibilrty as this. He'll besetrying the effect of the bullet with the top bitten off,” I added to keep the light side of the question uppermost, though it was a watery sort of sprightliness at the best. From the edge above, where the weight of the great body was pressing, a lump of granite fell, and splashed into splinters in the narrows of the gulf. It widened the mouth of the fissure by a foot or more. The horrible trunk surged forward a yard or two, and one of the huge legs, dropping from between the belly and the rock, slid into the opening. The five white claws waggled and gripped at empty space, and the gloom in the cave increased. Fidget was beyond barking now, and backed against the uttermost crevices with a sort of bleating gasp. I think that never have I seen unadulterated terror more plainly expressed on an animal’s features. With the increased room for the ecomilcooolks CO