Monster

The two R.A.F. officers were unworried. They had just been forced down on the Mediterranean, but they calmly inflated their rubber dinghy, climbed into it and waited to be rescued.

Suddenly the dinghy shook. Something began violently prodding its and their bottoms. The startled officers thought of mines and submarines and paddled wildly to another area of water. The prodding continued. Finally over the dinghy's side appeared the head of a monster--a supercilious face, two unwinking, baleful eyes. Then it vanished.

The airmen reviewed stories of sea serpents and of the Loch Ness monster until they were interrupted by the "thing's" reappearance. This time a wrinkled neck and armor plate identified it: a "completely operational"* turtle. Thereafter the turtle attacked with head-on lunges. Occasionally it surfaced to observe damage. Once when they tried to frighten it off, it seized the drogue rope and gave the dinghy a spin. The mariners clung, tried to keep from capsizing. After two hours, they were rescued by a launch.

* R.A.F. term meaning serviced and ready for action.

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