Chapter Four
Once the near hyperventilating Harold Lowe was calm enough to speak Joseph asked, "What does it want? Is it trying to initiate a mating ritual?"
"There's that scream again," Mayda said. "Ye men have got to stop mentionin' matin' rituals!"
"Species reproduce all the time! We've never encountered this thing before so we're curious," Herbert said.
"I think it wants to eat him," James said. Immediately his mind was flooded with images of Harold Lowe sitting inside a large stew pot. The water leaper was wearing a chef's hat and was busy adding ingredients while looking over the words in its copy of "The Human Menu."
"That mental image will keep him distracted for a little while. So, now, what do we do about it and Harry?" Charles asked.
"Kill it!" Harold snapped. "Put it in a stew pot! The chef can come up with something!"
"I'm afraid to ask how it would taste," Herbert admitted. "We don't even know if it's edible!"
"Throw some carrots and some seasoning in there and it'll be fine," Charles calmly said.
"Ye have eaten some strange things in yer lifetime, haven't ye?" Mayda asked.
"You have no idea."
Harold was furiously shaking his head, "Nope! I'm never stepping outside as long as that thing is alive! Not doing it!"
"What if it gets inside?" James asked once he snapped out of the mental images he had.
"You're not helping!"
Charles cut in, "We were thinking about putting it on a leash to keep it from getting to Harry."
"Oh sure, make it into a pet! Like that plan never goes wrong!" Harold sarcastically said and folded his arms across his chest. "There's only one thing to do—kill it!"
"I have to agree," Herbert said. "I'm all for 'it's one of God's creatures' but that thing even gives me the heebie-jeebies."
"You're just saying that because you can't relate it to any of your favorite science fiction authors," Joseph replied. "Oh, real mature! Stick your tongue out at me!"
"Ummm…gentlemen, we've got a problem," Mayda said.
"What's that?" Herbert asked.
"The water leaper just found a way onto the bridge."
Mayda cried out in surprise when Herbert grabbed her by the arms and threw her forward with a shout of "Take the girl!" She landed rather ungracefully at a heap in front of the water leaper as the bridge officers remembered the better part of valor.
"I see chivalry is dead," Mayda told the creature.
If she didn't know better she would actually think the water leaper was nodding in agreement.
