Stingray and the Monster by John Theydon

Author:John Theydon [Theydon, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: May Fair Books Ltd

That fear grew, knifing into him. He switched on his headlamp and squeezed into the crevice, in his anxiety for her not caring whether the light might be seen by any others of Hagen’s men who might be on the prowl in Number Thirteen’s second sprite.

The crevice widened suddenly into a shallow cavern, the floor of which was silted and littered with small rocks. At first he saw nothing more, but as he turned his head to the right the light beam played on what looked like a mass of writhing green snakes as thick as his arm. Beyond it was a squat trunk of wine-coloured jelly fastened to the rock wall.

An icy hand seemed to squeeze his heart. The thing was a monstrous sea anemone, and in the middle of its writhing tentacles was the limp figure of Marina!

Slowly, relentlessly, the giant tentacles were dragging the unconscious girl head first towards a cavernous toothless mouth that yawned at the top of that huge gelatinous body.

With a harsh cry of mingled horror and loathing, Troy snatched his knife from his belt and plunged at the monstrous creature.

A tentacle whipped out at him and he felt a fiery stinging sensation on his exposed forehead, as if he had fallen headlong into a bed of giant nettles.

He struck out viciously, severing the writhing thing with one sweep of his razor-sharp blade.

Marina’s head was perilously near that hideous fleshy-lipped mouth.

He knew the anemone was a mindless thing, a voracious feeder by instinct on anything that strayed within reach of its hundreds of sensitive tentacles, but that without them it was powerless.

In cold fury he slashed again and again at the tentacles which writhed about Marina. At first he seemed to make no impression. Always there seemed to be another ready to take the place of the one he hacked off.

Then suddenly the remaining tentacles retracted, vanishing into the vast mouth, which closed on them, leaving only a pulsating mass of red jelly anchored to the rock wall. The still faintly writhing tentacles he had severed drifted slowly away into the darkness.

Marina was floating motionless in the water. After a quick glance round in the light of his headbeam to make sure there were no other lurking dangers, Troy swam to her.

Big white blistering swellings on her face, throat and hands showed that the anemone’s paralysing poison had done its deadly work. Unprotected by swim gear as he was, she had fallen easy prey to it when she had dived into the crevice.

Troy knew that every moment she remained in the coma added to her danger. WASP swim gear was provided with a first-aid kit for emergencies like this. He took out the special hypodermic, ready charged with a heart stimulant, and carefully injected it.

Anxious seconds ticked away, and then he let out a great sigh of relief when he saw her eyelids flicker open.

“Come on,” he said when she was fully recovered. “We'd better get back to Stingray.”

She nodded, smiling.

Then suddenly the smile went from her blistered face and she caught at his arm in agitation.

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