And, indeed, I saw it not so plain as might be, because of the haze of
the fumes and the smoke that did lie in the air of the Gorge, as I have
told, and made something vague the sight at this time and that; but yet
we did both see a strange thing; for when that the great white body did
be come half into the light, the Slug-Beast set out a big tongue among
the boulders, after that it did peer thereunder; and the tongue did be
very long, and white, and something thin-seeming; and the Monster lapped
inward in a moment a great snake from among the boulders, and the tongue
did hold upon the snake, as that there did be surely teeth or roughness
upon the tongue; but yet the distance to be too great for any surety of
the sight, as you do know; and moreover, there did be the uncertainty of
the haze within the air. And the Slug took the snake inward, all as it did lash and wriggle, and
swallowed it in a moment; and, in verity, that snake did be a big and
horrid creature, else had it been not so plain to our sight; but it did
be as a worm unto the monster, and gone instant. And immediately, the Slug-Beast went again to searching, and the head to
sway from this side unto that side of the Gorge; and by the wideness and
ease of this swaying shall you perceive the utter greatness of the
Beast. And alway, as it did come downward of the Gorge, it thrust the stalks of
the eyes inward among the boulders, looking all ways; and oft the breath
did come from it, as a cloud; and the stink to rise up unto us, very
plain and an abomination. And again, we saw the Beast set the tongue in
among the boulders of the Gorge bottom; and it lickt forth a snake that
did seem so thick as a man in the body, and the snake to thrash in the
great white tongue, and to be immediately drawn inward, and gone utter. And surely, as the thought did stir in me, there did be a great Mercy
over us, in that we did not die by such a serpent in some dark and
horrid place of the Gorge. But yet, as it is like to be, mayhap the
snakes did be only anigh to the fire-holes; yet doth it be anywise a
wondrous thing that we had come so free of them alway; and truly to
learn, was to be given a new terror. Now the Monster was come fully into the shining of the fire-pit, and was
upon this side; and the fire to make a shining against the side of the
Slug, so that odd whiles I did perceive very plain the huge wrinklings
and musclings of the skin, as the Beast made onward. And alway it did
search, thrusting in the eye-stalks among the boulders. And sudden, it made pause, and did begin that it brought all the mighty
body together, and humpt itself, and brought the head-part round unto
the bottom of the cliff that made this side of the Gorge. And it
gathered itself, and afterward did lengthen upward against the cliff,
and begin to climb. And lo! I saw that the Beast did scent of us, and
made to come upward to destroy us. And as the mighty hill of the body did come into length against the
great cliff-side, the Beast set the eye-stalks into this cave and that,
as it did go, and into all crannies; and so lengthened upward very
straight and monstrous and dreadful unto us, and did be as a white and
mildewed hill, that had an horrid life. And the stink to come up, so
that we did be like to lose our breath with the dreadfulness of it, as
you shall think. And surely, for a moment, I looked unto the rocks upon the ledge, and
this way and that way, and upward unto the everlasting darkness that did
be above us, and again unto the great rock that did seem to quiver upon
the edge, as I have told. And I was grown utter desperate in a moment;
for, truly, it did seem in that instant that there did be no power in
the world that should slay so utter mighty a Monster. And immediately, even as I did despair, I had run very swift unto the
great rock, and the Maid with me, both very strained and shaken with the
horror of the thing that did make upward unto us so sure and intent. And I set my strength unto the rock, and heaved; but indeed the rock
gave not from the place where it did be; so that I had a dreadful
despair; for I saw that it did be more secure than had seemed. And the
Maid lent her strength unto mine, and we heaved together, with sore
pantings, and little cries to guide our endeavours and because we could
not be contained in that moment. And surely it seemed that the great rock moved, and lo! as we strove
together to the task, there came a vast and sudden grinding, and the
rock to cease from our shoulders, and to be gone from us, or scarce we
did wot of the happening. And the rock went over, and rushed downward
upon the Monster, and with mighty crashings, as it did grind and crush
the face of the cliff-side with a quick and constant thundering. And I
caught the Maid, as she did stagger upon that dire upward edge because
that she had set her strength so utter to the endeavour, and the rock to
be gone so sudden, as you do see, and she to be like to follow after. And she clung unto me, and I to hold her very safe as I lookt down upon
the falling of the Rock. And behold! the Great Rock smote the Monster in
the humpt part of the back, below of the head, and did enter into the
Monster, even as a bullet doth strike, and was gone instant from my
sight into the Vitals. And there came a mighty sound of anguish from the Monster; and the
Monster did loosen from the cliff, and to crumple, as it did seem, and
sink backward. And a great steam of dread breathing to go upward from
the Beast, and a reek; and it made again the strange and horrid noise of
pain, and the Gorge to be yet full of the echoes of the Rock thundering,
and with the noise of the rock there was now mingled the horrid sounding
of the death-crying of the Beast. And the Gorge to be filled with dull
and dreadful echoings, as that an hundred Monsters died in this place
and that of the darkness in the Gorge, and all to be bred of the noise
of that mildewed hill a-dying. And the echoes ceased not for a while, even after that the Monster did
be utter quiet; for truly they came presently from far upward and
downward of the Gorge, out of all the eternity of the night, and to be
as that they came backward very faint out of lonesome miles, and out of
the strange deepness of unknown caverns of the world. And so in the end
to silence; and the far bottom of the Gorge to be filled with a white
and horrid hill, very dreadful, and that did yet quiver to show the
slowness of Death. And alway a dreadful reek and stinking to fill all
the air, even unto the height, as of the grave. And I stood upward in that far, high place, and held the Maid very
strong and tender; and she to have covered her ears from that dreadful
crying; and to be yet shaken with the greatness and horror of the dying
of the Monster, and the nearness that she did come unto falling, as you
have seen.