"29 Apr. 1923 (cont.):"
During the summer break following my first year of post-graduate school in America, I had been invited by Professor Phillips to visit the farmstead owned by his mother's Amish relatives. This farmstead included a water-powered grist mill. And, in the evenings, after getting to bed early, I would be lulled to sleep by the 'jug-o-rum' croaking of the mill pond's bullfrogs."
"What I now heard coming from behind me was not only similar. It was amplified!"
"I turned as one, with Keith Ulu and Dr. McGee. And, what we saw standing behind us probably chilled their blood as much as it did mine. There, emerging from the jungle at the top of the beach, was a long line of creatures. Each one identical to the tik-balang/kappa hybrid that Captain Murgatroyd had apparently transformed into!* "
"What is worse, they began to surround us in a pincer movement. And, despite their being two feet tall individually, I had seen for myself how just one of them had overpowered a taller, well-armed man. So, three unarmed men could hardly be expected to stand up to fifty of these creatures!"
"Their 'jug-o-rum' sound started to come faster. And, I knew that a rush attack on us, from both sides, was only a matter of moments. That is when the wind picked up. Resulting in our suddenly being sand-blasted!"
"I closed my eyes and shielded them with my arms. So, I did not see what happened next. I only _felt_ it. I felt myself being lifted into the air, once more! And, when I opened my eyes, again, and looked about?"
"I found myself with a giant taloned bird's foot wrapped around me. The left foot, at that. For, when I looked to my right, I saw Keith Ulu and Dr McGee desperately clinging to another such foot."
"The miraculously gigantized kea, Ephraim, had once again come to our rescue!"
"Alas! Between the physical and mental strain of what I had just been through, and the literally breath-taking speed at which Ephraim was flying, it was too much for me."
"I blacked out."
* * * * *
"5 May 1923:
I have awakened, at last. And, it turns out that I have done so in the American naval hospital at Midway!"
"Nor am I alone. Dr. McGee is here, also. Yet, when I asked him about Keith Ulu and Ephraim, his face bore a most quizzical expression."
" 'Don't you remember, Gustave? He died on the ship! From ciguatera poisoning.' "
" 'Ciguatera?!' I echoed, in disbelief."
"He then 'reminded' me how, on our very first day at Kapu Hiva, shoals of barracuda had scared a large number of flying squid on to the ship's port bow. And, how Herr Martelli had persuaded Captain Murgatroyd to have Keith Ulu harvest it for a calamari supper!"
" 'Poor Ephraim wolfed down almost as much of it as poor Jack! Those two took sick, first. Then, so did most of the rest of us...to varying degrees. That's why we proved such easy pickings for Von Hauptmann's pirates. They dragged every able-bodied hand ashore, and forced us to continue trying to salvage that Chinese bill-hooked battleaxe from Admiral Zheng's treasure ship.' "
" 'With all due respect, Herr Doktor, that is not the way I remember it,' I replied."
" 'Small wonder. Ciguatera poisoning can have hallucinatory side-effects on those who survive it. But, that doesn't change the fact that Von Hauptmann would have killed us, anyway, as soon as we'd outlived our usefulness. And, that the two of us are alive only because those kraut pirates (no offense!) found out the hard way that we weren't the only ones on that island.' "
"I nodded, thinking he meant those horse-headed frog-men. Yet, I was swiftly proven wrong."
" 'The Navy Department is going to warn all American shipping to permanently by-pass that part of the International Dateline,' he continued: 'The Red Cross and the League of Nations are going to do the same thing with regard to the merchant marine fleets of other countries. They don't want anyone else running into those in-bred leper colonists, ever again!' "
tbc
Giantess World
