Page 235 - Adventures in shadow-land

been awake, he would have seen a long, bright
ripple on the water coming nearer as some sea

creature cut its way swiftly toward the new craft.
It was our merman, who found himself drawn to­

ward the land by a longing curiosity too strong
for him to resist,

“ It is all so quiet and still,” he thought.
“ There can be no possible danger, and I do so

want to see what sort of houses these human crea-
tures live in. There’s a new ship. I’ m a great
mind to go and look at it* What is that standing

there on the end of it?”

The merman swam on slowly, debating whether
he should really go and look. Something seemed
at once to warn him away and to call him for-

ward. He could not tell what was the matter
with him. Once he turned to swim away. Then

he made up his mind once for all, and dashed
straight on toward the ship. He said over to him­

self a charm his grandfather had taught him :
“ Aski, kataski, lix tetrax, damnamenous,,, words

of power once written on the fish-bodied statue of
the great goddess of Ephesus; but, dear me I it did

him no good at all. All the while he was coming