Argosy, Vol. 122, No. 1 — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAD PLANET. swam slowly to and fro below him. Burl had seen the former owner of his spear strive to thrust it into his opponents, and knew that a thrust was necessary. He had tried his weapon upon toadstools—had prac- tised with it. When the fish swam below him, he thrust sharply downward. The spear seemed to bend when it entered the water, and missed its mark by inches, to Burl’s astonishment. He tried again and again. : He grew angry with the fish below him for eluding his efforts to kill it. Repeated strokes had left it untouched, and it was unwary, and did not even try to run away. Burl became furious. The big fish came to rest directly beneath his hand. Burl thrust downward with all his strength. This time the spear, entering vertically, did not seem to bend. It went straight down. Its point penetrated the scales of the swimmer below, transfixing that lazy fish completely. An uproar began. The fish, struggling to- escape, and Burl, trying to draw it up ‘to his perch, made a huge commotion. In his excitement Burl did not observe a tiny ripple some distance away. The monster crayfish was attracted by the disturbance and was approaching. The unequal combat contin’ Burl hung on desperately to the end of his spear. Then there was a tremor in Burl’s support, it gave way, and fell into the stream with a mighty splash. Burl went under, his eyes open, facing death. And as he sank, his wide-open eyes saw waved before him the gaping claws of the huge crayfish, large enough to sever a limb with a single stroke of their jagged jaws. CHAPTER II. THE BLACK-BELLIED SPIDER. HE opened his mouth to scream, a re- plica of the terrible screams of his grandfather, seized by a black-bellied taran- tula years before, but no sound came forth. Only bubbles floated to the surface of the water. He beat the unresisting fluid with his hands—he did not know how to swim. The colossal creature approached leisurely, while Burl struggled helplessly. 35 His arms struck a solid object, and grasped it convulsively. A second later he had swung it between himself and the huge crustacean. He felt a shock as the mighty jaws closed upon the corklike fungus, then felt himself drawn upward as the crayfish released his hold and the shelf-fungus floated to the surface. Having given way beneath him, it had been carried below him in his fall, only to rise within his reach just when most needed. Burl’s head popped above water and he saw a larger bit of the fungus floating near by. Less securely anchored to the rocks of the river-bank than the shelf to which Burl had trusted himself, it had been dislodged when the first shelf gave way. It was larger than the fragment to which Burl clung, and floated higher in the water. Burl was cool with a terrible seli-posses- sion. He seized it and struggled te draw himself on top of it. It tilted as his weight came upon it, and nearly overturned, but he paid no heed. With desperate haste, he clawed with hands and feet until he could draw himself clear of the water, of which he would forever retain a slight fear. As he pulled himself upon the furry, orange-brown upper surface, a sharp blow struck his foot. The crayfish, disgusted at finding only what was to it a tasteless mor- sel in the shelf-fungus, had. made a languid stroke at Burl’s wriggling foot in the water. Failing to grasp. the fleshy member, the crayfish retreated, disgruntled and annoyed. And Burl floated down-stream, perched, weaponless and alone, frightened and in constant danger, upon a flimsy raft com- posed of a degenerate fungus floating sog- gily in the water. He floated slowly down the stream of a river in whose waters death lurked unseen, upon whose banks was peril, and above whose reaches danger fluttered on golden wings. It was a long time before he recovered his self-possessiun, and when he did he looked first for his spear. It was floating in the water, still transfixing the fish whose capture had endangered Burl’s life. The fish now floated with its belly upward, all life gone. So insistent was Burl’s instinct for food “hat his predicament was forgotten when he cComiclbooks.com