"
I presume the fellow knew from long experience when his master meant what
he said, and when he didn't. Without an attempt at remonstrance he
replaced the pipe. He continued stolidly to puff away. Tress caught me by
the arm.
"What did I tell you? There--there! That tentacle is moving."
The uplifted tentacle _was_ moving. It was doing what I had seen it do, as
I supposed, in my distorted imagination--it was reaching forward.
Undoubtedly Bob saw what it was doing; but, whether in obedience to his
master's commands, or whether because the drug was already beginning to
take effect, he made no movement to withdraw the pipe. He watched the
slowly advancing tentacle, coming closer and closer toward his nose, with
an expression of such intense horror on his countenance that it became
quite shocking. Farther and farther the creature reached forward, until on
a sudden, with a sort of jerk, the movement assumed a downward direction,
and the tentacle was slowly lowered until the tip rested on the stem of
the pipe. For a moment the creature remained motionless. I was quieting my
nerves with the reflection that this thing was but some trick of the
carver's art, and that what we had seen we had seen in a sort of
nightmare, when the whole hideous reptile was seized with what seemed to
be a fit of convulsive shuddering.
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