"Why not?" asked Trot, and then she did exactly what she had been
told not to do. She lifted her head and saw stretched over them a
network of scrawny, crimson arms interlaced like the branches of
trees in winter when the leaves have fallen and left them bare.

Cap'n Bill gave a start and muttered "Land sakes!" for he, too, had
gazed upward and seen the crimson network of limbs.

"Are these the sea devils?" asked the child, more curious than
frightened.

"Yes, dear," replied the Queen. "But I advise you to pay no
attention to them. Remember, they cannot touch us."

In order to avoid the threatening arms overhead, which followed them
as they swam, our friends kept near to the bottom of the sea, which
was here thickly covered with rough and jagged rocks. The inky water
had now been left far behind, but when Trot looked over her
shoulder, she shuddered to find a great crimson monster following
closely after them, with a dozen long, snaky feelers stretched out
as if to grab anyone that lagged behind. And there, at the side of
Princess Clia, was another devil, leering silently with his cruel,
bulging eyes at the pretty mermaid. Beside the queen swam still
another of their enemies. Indeed, the sea devils had crept upon them
and surrounded them everywhere except at the front, and Trot began
to feel nervous and worried for the first time.

Cap'n Bill kept mumbling queer words under his breath, for he had a
way of talking to himself when anything "upsot him," as he would