I screamed, and as an echo to the scream I heard the throaty laugh of the demented man in the gallery. Insects! God! Great bloated spiders, foul and gigantic, were watching me from their awful lairs! Again I struggled to wrench myself away, but I fell exhausted. Then I saw the hideous monsters begin slowly to advance, and I felt the web tremble as if something of great weight was gliding upon it.
Above me and to the right was one of the ghastly spiders. I saw its multiple eyes watching me as it paused.Fangs, shining like polished ebony, protruded beneath those terrible eyes, and when I saw the thing perched on the great web ready to pounce upon me, I cried out in horror. The web shook again, and I closed my eyes and waited for the dreadful impact. Even now, gentlemen, the sight of a fly buzzing his wings in a spider’s web makes me sick and weak. Why I did not faint then, I don’t know. Perhaps I was too terror-stricken.
I believe the monster would have leaped at that instant had it not been for a cry on the other wall of the pit. At the sound I began to hope again. It was Irene.
She was descending by a ladder, under a large trap on the other side, doubtless the one through which the ox had been cast. In her hand was an ax.
“Leave me!” I shouted, sick with fear for her safety. “You cannot save me! Back! Back!” But she came, and I saw the terrible thing above me turn on its great legs, and watch her. At that second I heard a yell of fury from the professor. He was descending a rope ladder on the other side of the pit, and was foaming with rage. The great spider had faced me again, and I could feel its legs rasp against the web that held me. I saw that the monster was covered with hair, like a huge bear, though no bear was ever so disgustingly sickening as this dreadful thing. I felt like a helpless fish about to be seized by a bloated octopus. Yet once again it hesitated, as if not knowing whether to turn on Irene or the professor.
Irene reached me first, and her ax whistled through the air at my feet as she cut me loose from the tenacious web. As she did so the hideous monster leaped at her! Like a steel trap and with terrible ferocity, the spider sprang, only to meet Irene’s ax.
The keen edge of the tool sank into its horrible flesh. I wrenched the weapon from Irene’s hand and finished the awful thing—saw it writhe out its death struggle, entangled by its own web. I struck again and again, and then threw aside the ax with a feeling of nausea and disgust. Irene clung to me and sobbed.
“Quick!” I cried, as I tore my eyes away from the throes of the monster I had killed. “Your father—look!” The unfortunate professor was pinned under the dreadful body of another spider. It had sprung upon him while I was occupied with my own troubles. Seizing the ax. I dashed toward him, taking care to avoid the treacherous web. I struck at the insect of hell with all my strength, and i turned upon me savagely. I saw those awful fangs poised above me as I struck again upward with the ax. My blow landed squarely, but it was too late to avoid the knifelike poison tubes. Something swept into my left hand like a razor, just as the dying and distended body of the spider bore me to the ground. I felt a fetid, cold breath on my neck and something flabby and soft seemed to encircle my chest. For a moment I lost consciousness.
The next thing I remembered was the sense of a great weight being removed from my body. I groaned, and sat upright. Irene helped me to my feet, and she was calm, though the dead body of the professor lay not
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