"He is beyond all help," I faltered.
"But he can be avenged," said Edmund, in a tone that I had never heard
him use before.
As he spoke he whipped out his pistol, and crash! crash! crash! sounded
the hurrying shots. As their echo ceased, the giant arachnid dropped his
prey, and then there came from him--clear, piercing, quivering through
our nerves--that arrowy whistle that had caused us to shudder as we
unwillingly listened to it darting out of the gloom of the impenetrable
thickets.
Then, to our horror, the creature, which, if touched at all by the shots,
had not been seriously injured, picked up its prey and bounded away in
the darkness. Edmund instantly turned to Ala, and I knew as well as if he
had spoken, what his demand was. He wished to follow, and his wish was
obeyed. We swooped ahead, and in a minute we saw the creature again. It
had stopped on another oasis of dry land, and it still carried its
dreadful burden. Its head was toward us, and it appeared to be watching
our movements. Its battery of eyes glittered wickedly, and I noticed the
bristle of stiff hairs, like wires, that covered its body and legs.
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