IN OCTOPUS BAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 954, 23 April 1930, Page 16

IN OCTOPUS BAY

Ronald and his brother George were rowing in a stout little sea-going boat in the waters of Queen Charlotte Hound—that channel of the sea which divides the Island of Vancouver from the mainland of North America.

Two Red Indians were paddling a eanoe in front, piloting them, for the boys were not natives ai Vancouver, but were visiting an uncle there. They were enjoying every moment of their stay, especially the exploring of the wild, romantic coast.

They rounded a long promontory Jutting out into the sound and a little lonely bay appeared in the near distance, with a terraced strand full of big, round, brown and grey boulders. The boys backed oars; they swung the boat round.

“What a deserted Robinson Crusoe sort of place!” said Ronald. “Let us go and pay it a visit.”

But at that moment the two Indians drew alongside, all* anxiety. “No, the young strangers must not think of landing on that shore. "Plenty bad beasts live there—devil-fishes, lying on the strand, taking the colours of the rocks and pretending to be rocks. But lean up again one, and you will see!’

“Well, we won’t land, then,” said Ronald, though his curiosity was excited. “But we might row a little nearer and have a shot at one.” They rowed farther into the shallower waters of the bay, the Indians leading the way in their light craft, when suddenly George called to his brother: “There is something like a serpent rearing itself up in the water. It has fallen across the canoe.” As the boys stared, horror-stricken, at one and the same moment the Indians leaped for their lives, and the great grey coil lying across the canoe tightened its grip and drew it down beneath the water. Just a gurgle and it was gone.

The English boys rowed quickly toward the spot where the canoe had sunk, and the Indians came. l threshing through the water and climbed hastily into the boat. Something else came in, too. A slender grey tip appeared over the edge of the bulwark, lashing in the air. It grew in length and thickness, and poured itself like a python across the boat, falling down into the sea on the other side. “The arm of the devil-fish!” cried the Indians. “Fire, before it sucks us down beneath the sea!”

They battered the great tentacle with their oars, while Ronald fired into the spot in the sea where he thought the monster might be lurking. An inky cloud darkened the waters, but the tentacle only tightened Its Iron grip, quite unaffected by the blows which were hailed upon it. The boat began to sink lower in the water.

“Fire into the brute’s arm; it Is our only chance!” cried George. •Shot after shot at close range Ronald fired into th© tentacle. Suddenly it relaxed its grip, and fell backward into the sea in two halves. They were saved; the released boat leaped forward. No Oxford crew' could have rowed harder than did the tw’o brothers to get away from the demon-haunted waters of Octopus Bay.