The Sea Raiders - Publishing People Series

While walking along the a cliff path, Fison, a retired tea-dealer on holiday in Sidmouth, sees some birds interested in something on the rocky shoreline. He goes to investigate, and finds octopus-like sea creatures, along with a partially eaten human body. At first he thinks the sea creatures are harmless, but when they notice his presence they chase him to the foot of the cliffs; he barely manages to escape their grasp. He returns in a boat, with the boatman and two local workmen, to the same area, where the tide is now coming in, and he shows them where he encountered the creatures. They see them below in the shallow water. Their tentacles start to reach for the occupants of the boat, and there is a prolonged struggle, the oars and a boat hook are used as weapons, which are gripped by the creatures. During all this, a larger boat is seen: the occupants, which include three women and a child, seem unaware of the danger and Fison tries to warn them. The arm of the boatman in Fison's boat becomes covered with tentacles: "the eyes of one of the brutes that had hold of him, glaring straight and resolute, showed momentarily above the surface." He is pulled underwater. The incoming tide carries the boat onto the rocky shore; Fison and the two workmen, in terror, leave the boat and run from the sea. Fison realizes he is no longer being pursued, and then remembers that there was another boat. "He looked back again, and there were now two boats floating, and the one farthest out at sea pitched clumsily, bottom upward."