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.One stalked eye, then a second, edged out warily from behind the massive claw,the two swaying and observing me intently where I stood transfixed withterror.A hermit crab, by God, the biggest of its species I could ever haveimagined!Now the pink, hairy, paddle-like arachnid legs curled out from under thestalked eyes and over the lower rim of the shell's mouth.They touched andfelt the ground beneath, spread themselves and braced against it, then withhideous speed the thing scuttled forward, bearing the vast shell with it!In that moment I knew that I was done for.To this day 1 don't know exactlywhat happened to prove me wrong.The claw, I could have sworn it, was actuallyclosing on my head and upper body when once again I was sent sprawling by ablow from a flapping leathery wing.One of the sky-lizards must have noticedmy flight from beneath the palm branch and had hopped after me.Doubtless itregarded the attack of the crab as a threat to its own proprietary rights.There again, perhaps I flatter myself.It could be of course simply that thepteranodon preferred crab meat to my own untried, completely conjecturaltexture and taste.Whichever, the great crab saw the danger it was in,snatched itself back and its walking appendages commenced a rapid, jerkyretraction - but not rapid enough.The fetid beak darted over my stretched-out form to pluck the soft-bodied crabfrom its shell in one lightning-like snatch.The writhing victim screamedhideously,harshly as, in the next instant, its juices squirted where the flashing beaksplit its black-veined body-sac.I was drenched in nameless muck as I gatheredmy wits sufficiently to scramble unceremoniously, and completely uncaring ofthe fate of its most recent resident, feet-first into the safety of the greatshell's bell mouth.I slithered backward, and as I went I snatched up from the sand a long,dagger-like Baculites shell, holding its sharp point outward.Further back yetI forced my body, until the curve of the thick shell shut off my view of theoutside world, until my hips would go no further down that smooth, vacantthroat.Then, trembling in a fever of reaction and terror, I waited forwhatever was to comenext.The crab was still screaming, but weaker now.Its harsh, rasping emissionssoon turned to a quiet rattle and a lessening, sporadic clicking of claws.Then there was only the splintering of shell and rending of flesh, and theoccasional indignant squawk or threatening, hissing cry.Obviously the twosky-lizards were sharing the crab, however unwillingly.I hoped that theirtiny minds would forget all about me in the general festivities.It must have been all of an hour later when I heard the heavy flopping ofwings and fading, raucous cries that announced the departure of at least one of the pterano-dons, perhaps both of them.I waited for half an hour longer,hardly daring to breathe, before squirming my body forward until the curve ofthe shell's mouth formed a crescent of light with the curving main body of theshell itself.A crescent of daylight, with a distant palm bending in afreshening breeze off the sea.I used my elbow to edge myself forward a fewinches more, and froze!Sitting there waiting for me, wings folded back, its head cocked expectantlyon one side and its evil red eyes gazing unblinkingly, almost hypnoticallyinto mine, was thesecond pteranodon! Oh, no, it had not forgotten me, this creature.Perhaps itsnow departed colleague had filled itself with the doubtless succulent flesh ofthe crab, but this one had obviously not been satisfied, would not be until I,too, had been made a meal of.But not if I had anything to say about it.I slid backward again until I could only just see the sky-lizard, thenhurriedly further back as it experimentally tried its head in the mouth of theshell.No, I was safe for the moment, it was unable to reach me.The greatwedge-shaped head and beak simply could not maneuver within the shell's mouth.In fact as the pteranodon pushed harder, twisting its head as it sought toclose with me, that huge wedge of head and beak jammed.In something of apanic the sky-lizard attempted to withdraw, actually rocking the vast ammonitebefore its head came free.For a moment or two then there was silence, but inthe next instant my head was ringing to the reverberations of a series ofsavage blows on the exterior of the shell.Within those hollow acousticalconfines the sound was deafening, a burst of machine-gun fire!God almighty! Could the shell hold out against such a battering? The wholecoil seemed to be vibrating about me.Surely it would shatter into a thousandpieces at any moment, exposing me like a bark-bug in a cracked cocoon to thebeak of a hungry woodpecker! But mercifully the sharp blows soon ceased.Following a long period of silence, thinking that perhaps the creature hadgiven up at last and moved away, I eased myself forward again.He was stillthere, peering at me just as intently, his head cocked on one side as before.As I stared back at that monster I couldn't help but think of a line fromAepyornis Island by H.G.Wells: 'A great gawky, out-of-date bird! And me ahuman being, heir to the ages and all that.'Oh, I know, the creature in Wells's story was a true bird and mine was areptile; but my plight was much the same as that of Wells's hero, infinitelyworse, in fact.He at least had been located in his own time: Aepyornis Vastushad been the odd-bird-out.So the afternoon crept by.At intervals I would ease myself forward to peerout from the mouth of the great shell, invariably to find my pteranodonantagonist still laying siege on that exit with what seemed to me the patienceof a prehistoric Job.Occasionally, too, there would come a burst of staccatopecking at the outer wall of the shell, to which I soon grew accustomed.Andstrangely enough, apart from my slight hunger and thirst, and not to mentionthe horror awaiting me outside, I found the coiled shell very much preferableto that pebbly crevice of the previous night.It dawned on me that I wasperfectly safe where I was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.One stalked eye, then a second, edged out warily from behind the massive claw,the two swaying and observing me intently where I stood transfixed withterror.A hermit crab, by God, the biggest of its species I could ever haveimagined!Now the pink, hairy, paddle-like arachnid legs curled out from under thestalked eyes and over the lower rim of the shell's mouth.They touched andfelt the ground beneath, spread themselves and braced against it, then withhideous speed the thing scuttled forward, bearing the vast shell with it!In that moment I knew that I was done for.To this day 1 don't know exactlywhat happened to prove me wrong.The claw, I could have sworn it, was actuallyclosing on my head and upper body when once again I was sent sprawling by ablow from a flapping leathery wing.One of the sky-lizards must have noticedmy flight from beneath the palm branch and had hopped after me.Doubtless itregarded the attack of the crab as a threat to its own proprietary rights.There again, perhaps I flatter myself.It could be of course simply that thepteranodon preferred crab meat to my own untried, completely conjecturaltexture and taste.Whichever, the great crab saw the danger it was in,snatched itself back and its walking appendages commenced a rapid, jerkyretraction - but not rapid enough.The fetid beak darted over my stretched-out form to pluck the soft-bodied crabfrom its shell in one lightning-like snatch.The writhing victim screamedhideously,harshly as, in the next instant, its juices squirted where the flashing beaksplit its black-veined body-sac.I was drenched in nameless muck as I gatheredmy wits sufficiently to scramble unceremoniously, and completely uncaring ofthe fate of its most recent resident, feet-first into the safety of the greatshell's bell mouth.I slithered backward, and as I went I snatched up from the sand a long,dagger-like Baculites shell, holding its sharp point outward.Further back yetI forced my body, until the curve of the thick shell shut off my view of theoutside world, until my hips would go no further down that smooth, vacantthroat.Then, trembling in a fever of reaction and terror, I waited forwhatever was to comenext.The crab was still screaming, but weaker now.Its harsh, rasping emissionssoon turned to a quiet rattle and a lessening, sporadic clicking of claws.Then there was only the splintering of shell and rending of flesh, and theoccasional indignant squawk or threatening, hissing cry.Obviously the twosky-lizards were sharing the crab, however unwillingly.I hoped that theirtiny minds would forget all about me in the general festivities.It must have been all of an hour later when I heard the heavy flopping ofwings and fading, raucous cries that announced the departure of at least one of the pterano-dons, perhaps both of them.I waited for half an hour longer,hardly daring to breathe, before squirming my body forward until the curve ofthe shell's mouth formed a crescent of light with the curving main body of theshell itself.A crescent of daylight, with a distant palm bending in afreshening breeze off the sea.I used my elbow to edge myself forward a fewinches more, and froze!Sitting there waiting for me, wings folded back, its head cocked expectantlyon one side and its evil red eyes gazing unblinkingly, almost hypnoticallyinto mine, was thesecond pteranodon! Oh, no, it had not forgotten me, this creature.Perhaps itsnow departed colleague had filled itself with the doubtless succulent flesh ofthe crab, but this one had obviously not been satisfied, would not be until I,too, had been made a meal of.But not if I had anything to say about it.I slid backward again until I could only just see the sky-lizard, thenhurriedly further back as it experimentally tried its head in the mouth of theshell.No, I was safe for the moment, it was unable to reach me.The greatwedge-shaped head and beak simply could not maneuver within the shell's mouth.In fact as the pteranodon pushed harder, twisting its head as it sought toclose with me, that huge wedge of head and beak jammed.In something of apanic the sky-lizard attempted to withdraw, actually rocking the vast ammonitebefore its head came free.For a moment or two then there was silence, but inthe next instant my head was ringing to the reverberations of a series ofsavage blows on the exterior of the shell.Within those hollow acousticalconfines the sound was deafening, a burst of machine-gun fire!God almighty! Could the shell hold out against such a battering? The wholecoil seemed to be vibrating about me.Surely it would shatter into a thousandpieces at any moment, exposing me like a bark-bug in a cracked cocoon to thebeak of a hungry woodpecker! But mercifully the sharp blows soon ceased.Following a long period of silence, thinking that perhaps the creature hadgiven up at last and moved away, I eased myself forward again.He was stillthere, peering at me just as intently, his head cocked on one side as before.As I stared back at that monster I couldn't help but think of a line fromAepyornis Island by H.G.Wells: 'A great gawky, out-of-date bird! And me ahuman being, heir to the ages and all that.'Oh, I know, the creature in Wells's story was a true bird and mine was areptile; but my plight was much the same as that of Wells's hero, infinitelyworse, in fact.He at least had been located in his own time: Aepyornis Vastushad been the odd-bird-out.So the afternoon crept by.At intervals I would ease myself forward to peerout from the mouth of the great shell, invariably to find my pteranodonantagonist still laying siege on that exit with what seemed to me the patienceof a prehistoric Job.Occasionally, too, there would come a burst of staccatopecking at the outer wall of the shell, to which I soon grew accustomed.Andstrangely enough, apart from my slight hunger and thirst, and not to mentionthe horror awaiting me outside, I found the coiled shell very much preferableto that pebbly crevice of the previous night.It dawned on me that I wasperfectly safe where I was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]