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- the Dilgrim Dress, mosmu. ‘new tjotk aim Chicago
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Dmwmiis D)! r.. 1:. rmi.-m-m.
“ NI) this morning the hide and bones
A of a dog found in a pitfall!"
shouted Palai, on rushing into the
bamboo bungalow where his father lay
swathed in bandages. -
“ he pit is at the very edge of the inlet
water. lliis time." the lad hurried on,
4 catching at his breath between words,
“and the hide is torn into pieces. and what
bones are left'are broken and crushed.
The head is not anywhere; but it, is the
dog of Sonoz that I kn0w,from the color
of the hair on the pieces of skin."
Ol ':tlomon turned restlessly and
stared at his son.
.“Dogs, now." he muttered, am amazed
expression on his brown, salt-tanned face.
“First'it is a pig, then.goats and now :1
dog. Next it may be ponies and people.
But for that demon shark, I would have
known, by now."
It-hail been two weeks and a day since
old Kalniiiou's riglit,side had been laid
open by the f-in of aitiger shark, from
which he hail barely-escaped by‘ a quick
dive, coming up with a rushito be pulled
into his boat liy Palai and his uncle, Moki,
w 0 was not hshing with,the'ni a little he-
yond the mouth of the inlet. '
A few mornings thereafter, goingrearly
-to see what luck had been his oyer 'night
with his fishing lines, Palai had come upon
‘the remains of the carcass of avpig, He
.saw that it had lseeiftlevoiired inaistrange
manner. the skin and bones being,torn
v;jtI1(l broken into bits, and, half.in1friglit,‘
he ran all the way home to tell.his father.
And ‘it was Palai, also, who had’fouiid ‘
the remains of the goats, for it seemed
that the sea monster, for such if. plainly
was. as a sprawling trail always led away
,ft‘om the pits to the water, came always
"up the inlet, which was Kaloiuon's‘ fish‘-
ing ground. .
The old fisherman, thougli.he.was fa-
miliar with all living things.ir,i,the land
of-O'ahu. and in the waters around, could
not imagine what it might be that waylaid
pigs and goats and dogs at the surf's edge,
.hetween darkness and day, and mangled
and (l?V(>tlft'ti them. Nor did. anyonejil
Hawaii know. of course,Vif, old Kalomon
did not. ' ' . , -
The presence of the, unknown ',creatur,e
soon was the talk of the little Village up
the hill, and on two nights some of the
more fearless. witli.clubs and axes and
'squi<lirons. watched. butysaw nothing. Old
Kaloinon advised them to watch without
torches,'hut that they‘ were afraidto do,
as it was in the dark of the moon. But
with the finding of the remains of the
big, fearless dog of Sam). the .village
tradcsin.-in, the stoutest-hearted kept well
an y from the heacli at night, for it was
being WlIiS[)t'l’t‘(l that the killings were the
work of some evil fiend that came out o
the sea at tide-rise.
Palai went early and cautiously there-
after to stake out his incs and nets for
the night. and later in the morning to look
at them. And all the while the slaugh-
ter continued, for goats and pigs, espe-
cially pigs, would frequent the beach,
and nearly every morning a fresh pit,
smeared with the leavings of one or the
other’ of such animals, was found in the
vi
::
H 5.
“Beware!” Palai's father warned him
repeatedly. “I know not what it may be.
As soon as my side is healed we shall find
out."
On the morning trips Palai, if he could,
v "led himself of the extra safeguard, if
so it may have been called, of the com-
pany of Moki, who sometimes helped
them catch and peddle fish, and at other
times did shiftless jobs in the village.
’Aud so it came about that it was Moki
who first fell into the clutches of the ter-
ror of the pitfalls. ‘
A great storm raged all onenight, and the
villagers were kept awake, dreading every
moment that their little houses would be
wrenchcd loose and wrecked by the heavy
sweep of the wind. For once ltlnki did
not to have to be routed from his bed; so
Palai and he went, just about sunrise, to
sec what was left of the lines and nets.
The beach was strewn with drift and the
smaller things of the deep, and already
pigs and goats were coming to feed. The
‘low sand dunes were cut and hollowed
where they had been gored by the surf
break. As they were going down the nar-
"rowing point of ivave-packed sand be-
tween the inlet and the farthest iucurve
‘of “Iaialae Bay. Moki suddenly sank to
his hips into what seemed to be a shallow
caxe-in. At the same instant a vicelike
grip fastened upon one'of his feet, a
grip that made him cry out in pain and
horror, '
Palai knew at once what the danger
was. He seized the floundering, shriek-
ing’ llloki under the arms close to the
shoulders and braced his feet as near as
he dared to the crumbling edge of the pit.
Tliough not of man's age by three years,
he was near man's strength, and when he
exerted his utmost tug he jerked Moki
far enough to one side for. him to get a
hand- and a knee-hold. W'ith Moki fran-
tically digging his fingers deep into the
sand, and struggling for life, and Palai
‘straining till his eyes were blood-streaked,
the grip of the thing below was broken
and Palai went sprawling backward with
Moki on top of him. As the limb was
torn from the sand Palai caught a terrify-
ing glimpse of a gigantic, grayish-green
arm with a long. thick shearlike append-
ca
age that pursued with hideous snaps the‘,
escaping foot.
It all had happened in less than a initi-
ute. I’ it been longer. poor Mnki
doubtless would have met the fate that
‘l)(‘fCll the pigs and goats and the dog.
That would have happened anyway, but
or the quick thought and the courage of
Palai, ltloki spun over and over away
from the pit, and then sprang up and ran;
l’alai was on his feet the instant his uncle
had roiled off him, and ran with him up
the hill till he began to fall behind. Then,
seeing that they were not pursued, he
halted.
The heel and sole of Moki's shoe had
been ripped off, and his foot was covered
with blood. Palai dropped to his knees
and examined the wound. The liecl was
crushed and on either side of the thick
part of the leg were deep gashes where
the beaked tips of the shears had sunk.
Both had worn shoes that morning, on
account of the dtibris on the beach. It
was fortunate indeed for Moki, and
doubly fortunate that the grip had fallen
on his shoe heel. which, apparently,
wedged so far into the hinge of the shears
that they were clogged and kept from
mangling the foot and ankle. W'lien the
heel and sole came off, the grip of the
shears slipped.
“Can you go on and rouse men?" Palai
asked, getting to his feet. “We must slay
it before it goes back to the sea, for from
the sea it is for certain, because its smell
is of the deep and its leg is like the leg
of a crab."
“Yes,”
voice, “let me go.on.
groaned Moki, in a shaking
It is a fiend and
oo."
B t Palai was brave.
d call," he said, “but the wind
would carry my voice away from the vil-
lage. You go on as fast as you can and
I will watch.”
ltloki hobbled away as rapidly as he
could. - ‘
l.Vhere they had stopped was several
hundred yards from the pit, so Palai could
not seeder‘ certain if anything was mov-
ing it; but nothing‘c'ame out of it, so, un-
less it had a subterraiiean passage to the
ocean, it was still in its lair.
In spite of his wounds, Moki made
NG
l‘Ol2'YOUl‘lG'PEOPLE 52%:
silently, stealtliily closed in and waited to
see if the thing would come out, The
slow, upward pressure continued for sev-
eral minutes, till the surface of the pit
was almost even with that of the beach.
This covering apparently was being held
there, for the inoveinent subsided for pos-
sihly five minutes or longer; than the stip-
port from below was slowly and evenly
withdrawn. Owing to the gap in the side.
the covering did not hold, but instantly
fell in, and those nearest saw between
patches of sand a grayish-green bulk that
started to rise again.
"Hal" yelled Kaliiknla, "A great crabl
Here, Keame, thrust your squidiron un-
der it and pry it out, and I will kill it
with my ax."
But Kaliiknla had reckoned hastily.
Keame had no more than thrust in the
squidiron when it was seized and held
rigidly, while a long, powerful arm shot
out of the sand, the vicious clip of its
shears going over his head only by a frac-
tion of an inch. As Keaine leaped back-
ward, Kaliiknla struck at the arm with
his ax, and two others struck with their
clubs; but the shears had as quickly
clashed downward as though the crab
supposed that its prey would dodge that
way, and the blows missed.
The body of the crab was yet almost
hidden, but when the man with the gun
shot into the pit. there was a furious up-
heaval and it came out in a whirl of sand,
its formidable shears snapping in every
direction. It was truly an amazingly mou-
strous crab; a crab of terrible propor-
tions. It looked like a huge, writhing
spider.
Kaliikula aimed a quick blow at its
head, but the crab dropped back cun-
ningly. The force of the swing threw
im partly around, and be-
fore he could recover him-
self the tips of the saw-
toothcd shears snapped on
his left arm just below
the shoulder, cutting to
and splintering the bone.
He struck desperately with
the ax, but though it fell
squarely on the crab's head.
a single-lianded blow had
not force enough to make
it release its hold. Then
the other clashing shears
caught the wrist of his
right arm and there was a.
sickening crunch of bones.
Kaliiknla was in a dan-
gerous plight. He was
jerked with such force and
SlItl(lCl‘Hl(‘5S to his knees
that his teeth cracked to-
Strike quick !”
he screamed, as he was
drawn close to the ugly,
hissing mouth.
The men rushed in and
squidirons, clubs, axes and
fishing gaffs smote the
‘”n' was c-Nu on THE BIGGRST IN EXlSTBNC3.'"
quick time to the village, n10YCfll.".‘l.’l mile
away on the crest of the hill, and soon a
posse of‘men,‘one with a gun and the
others with axes, squidirons. clubs. fish-
ing gaffs and whatever could be readily
caught up, came running down the hill.
"“'here,is this devil thing?" called big
Kaliiknla. who led the posse.
“There !", cricd Palai, pointing to the
pit, as he advanced ahead of them.
The men warily surrounded the hole,
one side of which had bccii rent by the
struggle of Moki, and then it was seen
that the sand in the crater was being
pushed upward by an invisible force. ob-
viously in an attempt to mend the pitfall.
With weapons all ready for use, they
crab, but with the grip of
a bulldog it held on to
Kaliiknla, as with its legs
it thrashed them,knocking them down and
stunning them, and.almost stifling them
with its Fishy stench. By that time. how-
ever, the man with the gun had reloaded
it, and shoving the muzzle in beneath the
cr.1b's shell, he Gred. The load of buck-
shot tore into its iitals and its grip on
Kaliiknla was slackcucd so that two of
the men were able to snatch him away,
while the others kept up the attack.
Trying to back into the waters of the
inlet, the crab, ’tliou::h showing signs of
being badly wounded, continued to wage
a dangerous battle. The catlike quickness
of its legs, and the dreaded shears that
could cleave throi:gh honcs. held the men
05. Not until annilier cliarge of buckshot
Novizunim S, 1913
‘ .--.i‘:;
.f N"<.pJ")Av
