Page:Cruise of the Dry Dock.djvu/218

 to think that there were comfortable, well-ordered places on the face of the earth. Just as one cannot imagine snow and ice in the depth of summer, so Madden could not imagine the simple comforts of life. It seemed to him the whole world shriveled under a furnace heat.

Such heat, such congestion, he thought, might well breed sea-monsters. After all, why should there not be a sea monster? Who could be sure that the old megalosauri, and megalichthys were extinct? Those monsters existed once upon a time, certainly. He was half persuaded that they still existed.

A sea serpent!

He wondered what a sea serpent would look like? One might well drive a man insane, cause him to leap overboard in utter horror.

His feverish brooding was interrupted by a wild flood of abuse from the starboard deck. It was Galton's voice bellowing:

“Were is 'e? Were is that bloody Hamerican? 'E 'it me! 'It me in th' eye for trying to 'elp 'im! You lads goin' to see me murdered for nothin'?”

Came a medley of drunken questions: