Page 108 - English_Spark_5

‘‘He’s fallen in the pit!’’ cried someone. ‘‘Keep back!’’ said several.

I elbowed my way through the crowd. Everyone seemed

greatly excited. Then I saw a young man desperately trying

to scramble out of the hole. The crowd had pushed him in.

The top end of the cylinder was being screwed out from
within. Somebody pushed against me, and I narrowly

missed being pitched on top of the screw. I turned, and
as I did so, the screw must have come out, for the lid of

the cylinder fell upon the ground with a ringing sound.
For a moment that circular cavity seemed perfectly

black.

I think everybody expected to see a man emerge–

possibly something a little unlike us, but in all
essentials, a man. But, looking, I presently saw

something stirring within the shadow; greyish
billowy movements, one above another, and then two

luminous discs–like eyes. Then something resembling
a little grey snake, about the thickness of a walking stick,

wriggled in the air towards me–then another.

A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and
painfully out of the cylinder. As it rose up and caught the light, it glistened like

wet leather.

Two large eyes were looking at me steadily. The head of the thing was rounded,

and had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under the eyes which kept
trembling and dropped saliva. A limp tentacle gripped the edge of the cylinder,

another moved around in the air.

scramble out — move out of a particular place in a hurried or clumsy way; cylinder

— an object with a circular top and bottom and straight sides; pitched — thrown
roughly; cavity — empty space inside a solid object; billowy — with a wave-like motion;
wriggled — moved by making quick twists and turns; glistened — shone brightly;
tentacle — a thin, flexible, arm-like body part, used by animals like the octopus for

holding on to things or moving about

108 English-5