Death on the Pier

Flounders and sting-rays, spotted bass and crabs and lobsters, all hauled struggling to the worn plank floor of the pier, all stared at on the way up, all dripping their last touch of sea-water, as another creature might lose his life blood. Glistening and pliant of a strange, wet, dark-rubber flesh, bristling about the mouth with vestiges of tusks and spears, helpless and voice-less at the feet of the fishermen. A cold steel knife drawn across their jaws, or a sudden, crushing blow, swung by their tails and thumped against the railing, or strong man-fingers tearing away the hook. Then laid away with other fish bodies in a gunny sack, or left to flop reproachfully upon the splintery boards, to gasp, to lie silently at last, with the round, impotent mouth open and the eyes glazed. unheralded.