An octopus has suckers on the inner sides of
its eight arms. A starfish has little feelers, or "fingers,"
arranged parallel rows on the inner side of its arms?thousands of
little feelers, and these exert a sort of sucking action.
The gigantic starfish had attacked Ned from above, settling
down on him so that the head of the diver was at the middle of
the creature's body, the five arms, dropping over Ned in a sort
of living canopy. And the arms held tightly.
"Come on, Koku, and you, too, Norton!" called Tom through his
headpiece telephone. "We'll all attack it at once. I'll fire, and
then you begin to hack it. The electric charge ought to stun it,
if it doesn't kill the beast!"
Tom's new electric gun, unlike one kind he had first invented,
did not fire an electrically charged bullet. Instead it sent a
powerful charge of electricity, like a flash of lightning, in a
straight line toward the object aimed at. And the current was
powerful enough to kill an elephant.
Bracing his feet on the white sand, which gleamed and sparkled
in the glare of the searchlight, Tom aimed at the gigantic
starfish which had enveloped Ned.
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