It
was a conflict between pride of race and sanctified horror,
for had not their townsmen looked into the very jaws of
death? One imaginative gentleman made a statement that was
creepy in his version of a gallant fight against the
demoniac foe. The monster is said to have raised itself high
out of the water, and opened its jaws, which exposed to view
a vast space, and suggested that the intention was to
receive, if not a few of the boats, certainly a multitude of
the people who manned them. One craft came gliding along,
and the skipper promptly picked up an oar, and put it into
the "serpent's" mouth, whereupon the oar was as promptly
snapped asunder; and the skilful mariner sailed his craft
gallantly out of harm's way while the cause of all the
commotion went prancing about the ocean in defiance of the
vast flotilla which is said at the same time to have
occupied its attention. It would be impossible to give more
than a summary of all the things that were said to have been
done during this trying episode; and all that need be said
now is that the men were stricken with awe. They remained in
port for several days in the belief that their enemy was
still on the rampage outside.
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