Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/47

Rh 'Aye, I will, and I'll make you pay, I will!'

As I thought I was altogether alone, I started up in the wildest terror, and with a feeling of horror which I could not conquer, and cannot now describe, I turned slowly round, and lo! within six feet of me stood that terrible being, the far-famed 'Demon of the Great Lake.'

An iceberg glided down my vertebral column. The appearance of this awful being, far more repulsive than that of a real live yahoo, nearly drove me frantic with terror and despair, tempered with something like detestation, so utterly repugnant was it, and so far below everything which I had previously imagined in connection with created beings above the rank of beasts of the field. He was about seven feet in height. His face was frightful, and of a deep chocolate colour; his nose was hooked like an eagle's claw. He glared upon me with eyes like two leaden bullets of grape-shot just ready to go off; his mouth and teeth closely resembled the deadliest part of a rabbit-trap. On his head he wore a remarkably small cocked hat made of serpent's skin, as I was afterwards informed. His robe was the rough waterproof hide of a bunyip. In his right hand he carried a knotted caduceus with two live snakes twined around it, and with certain cabalistic characters engraved upon it; and on his left arm he bore what appeared to be several folds of the tail part of a boa-constrictor.

'I'll make you pay!' he again roared at the top of his voice, and gnashing his teeth with a loud snapping noise; 'and I'll double the amount and more, I will!'

'I kept silence for a long time, and I was trembling to my very boots; but seeing that he was working himself up into a fearful rage, I managed to stammer:

'Please, sir———'

'Oh, you have found your tongue at last, have you?' he said, in a somewhat mollified tone. 'Well, get up your courage, what little you have of it, and listen to my words.