Avon Fantasy Reader No. 9 — page 104: what you’re looking at

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

and I was stepping forward slowly through the thigh-deep water, even be- fore he spoke. . | I went a couple of paces in through the black gape of the doorway, and then stopped and held the lamp so as to get a view of the place. As I did so, I remember how the intense silence struck home on me. Every man of us must surely have been holding his breath; and there must have been some heavy quality, either in the water, or in the scum that floated on it, that kept it from rippling against the sides of the bulkheads, with the move- ments we had made. At first, as I held the lamp (which was burning badly), I could not get Its position right to show me anything, except that I was in a very large cabin for so small a vessel. Then I saw that a table ran along the centre, and the top of it was no more than a few inches above the water. On each side of it, there rose the backs of what were evidently two rows of massive, olden looking chair. At the far end of the table, there was a huge, immobile, humped something. : I stared at this for several moments; then I took three slow steps for- ward, and stopped again; for the thing resolved itself, under the light from the lamp, into the figure of an enormous man, seated at the end of the table, his face bowed forward upon his arms. I was amazed, and thrilling abruptly with new fears and vague impossible thoughts. Without moving — a step, I held the light nearer at arm’s length... . The man was of stone, like everything in that extraordinary ship. “That foot!” said the Captain’s voice, suddenly cracking. “Look at, that foot!” His voice sounded amazingly startling and hollow in that silence, and the words seemed to come back sharply at me from the vaguely seen bulkheads. | , I whipped my light to starboard, and saw what he meant—a huge human foot was sticking up out of the water, on the right hand side of the table. It was enormous. I have never seen so vast a foot. And it also was of stone. And then, as I stared, I saw that there was a great head above the water, over by the bulkshead. __ “Pve gone mad!” I said, out loud, as I saw something else, more incred- ible. : “My God! Look at the hair on the head!” said the Captain. . . . “It’s growing!” he called out once more. | I was looking. On the great head, there was becoming visible a huge mass of red hair, that was surely and unmistakably rising up, as we watched it. “It’s what I saw at the window!” I said. “It’s what I saw at the window! I told you I saw it!” “Come out of that, Duprey,” said the Third Mate, quietly. “Let’s get out of here!” muttered one of the men. Two or three of them called out the same thing; and then, in a moment, they began a mad rush up the stairway. | 102 Conniclooolkks (©)