"I don't like the look of those creatures at all," said Zaidie, when the
_Astronef_ had come to a stop and was floating about ten miles above the
surface. "They're altogether too uncanny. They look to me something like
jelly-fish about the size of whales, only they have eyes and mouths. Did
you ever see such awful-looking eyes, bigger than soup-plates and as
bright as a cat's. I suppose that's because of the dim light. And the
nasty wormy sort of way they swim, or fly, or whatever it is. Lenox, I
don't know what the rest of Saturn may be like, but I certainly don't
like this part. It's quite too creepy and unearthly for my taste. Look
at the horrors fighting and eating each other. That's the only bit of
earthly character they've got about them; the big ones eating the little
ones. I hope they won't take the _Astronef_ for something nice to eat."
"They'd find her a pretty tough morsel if they did," laughed Redgrave,
"but still we may as well get some steering way on her in case of
accident."
CHAPTER XVIII
A few moments later he sent a signal to Murgatroyd in the engine-room.
The propellers began to revolve slowly, beating the dense air and
driving the _Astronef_ at a speed of about twenty miles an hour through
the depths of this strangely peopled ocean.
They approached nearer and nearer to the surface, and as they did so the
uncanny creatures about them grew more and more numerous.
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