It was that that finally broke the spell of Worley's stupefaction,
for as the great arm looped toward him he staggered back, giving
unconscious utterance to a high scream. At that same moment of utter
horror, he says, by some strange trick of the mind there had flashed
across his brain remembrance of the feebly moving clear slime that
had been found on beach and sea-wall in the last days, but that
fleeting thought dissolved for the moment in the stark horror that
now filled him. Another great looping arm had shot out beside the
first, lengthening smoothly and swiftly toward him, while the gliding,
jelly-like masses from which both projected were flowing toward him,
across grass and paving--great glistening, amorphous bulks a full yard
in height, now, gathering greater bulk each moment by the masses that
still were flowing up from the waters over the park's wall to add to
them. Worley, though, had seen this in but a single dazed glimpse, for
as the second arm had shot toward him he had stumbled backward again,
crying out, and then was running weakly toward the park's north end.
* * * * *
From beneath the overhung elevated tracks, as he ran toward them, there
leapt to meet him two blue-coated figures, one with a pistol gleaming
in his hand, and at sight of the policeman whom his cries had summoned
Worley became incoherent in his horror.
"Coming out of the water over the park!" he could only tell
them hoarsely, gesturing toward the southern end. "Gray
jelly-stuff--protoplasm like it said in the newspapers--masses of it
coming out----"
The two surveyed him doubtfully a moment, then, peering into the
darkness at the park's lower end, began to walk slowly in that
direction, their weapons outstretched. His heart pounding rapidly
Worley watched them vanishing into the darkness. There was a moment
of silence, a silence in which the rattle of a train far to the north
came preternaturally loudly to his ears. Then he heard a sudden sharp
exclamation from the darkness southward, and the next moment the
darkness was split by a spurt of flame and the deafening rattle of
shots. Then, against the gleaming waters beyond, he glimpsed great arms
flashing upward like dark, mighty tentacles, and as they flashed down
again the shots ceased, there were sharp screams, suddenly cut off,
and then silence again. Worley, trembling, gazed still down into the
little park, and after a moment saw movement there, a slow movement
approaching him. Finally it came within the radiance of the nearer
lights, and he saw that it was the great, glistening, gray masses,
flowing smoothly across the park toward him, flowing up as smoothly
still from the waters around it, and that in the clear, jelly-like bulk
gliding toward him were held, like flies in amber, the dark, twisted
bodies of two men!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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