Closer examination revealed that there was a horny beak, like a parrot's, in the mouth, and that on the under side of the head was a curious tube-like structure.
"Oh, that's his squirter!" Billy explained. "When he wants to back up he points that forward, and squirts out water so hard as he can; and when he wants to go ahead he points it backward, and does the same thing. That's where his ink comes from, too, when he wants to make the water so dirty nobody can see him."
"When he gets his food in his arms he bites out pieces with his beak. He hasn't any teeth; but he's got something just as good--a tongue like a rasp."
"I wouldn't like to be cotched by a squid as big as a hogshead," Bobby remarked, timidly.
"Huh!" said Billy, grimly. "He'd make short work o' _you_! Why, b'y, they weighs half a tone apiece! I isn't much afraid, though," he added. "They're only squid. Afore I read about them in the book I used to think they was worse than they is--terrible ghostlike things. But they're no worse than squids, only bigger, and----"
"They're bad enough for _me_," Bobby interrupted.
"And," Billy concluded, "they only comes up in the night or when they're sore wounded and dyin'."
"I'm not goin' out at night, if I can help it," said Bobby, with a canny shake of the head.
"If they was a big squid come up the harbor to your house," said Billy, after a pause, "and got close to the rock, he could put one o' they two long arms in your bedroom window, and----"
"Never mind that. He could put it in the window and feel around for your bed, and twist that arm around you, and----"
"Anyhow, that's how long they is. And if he knowed you was there, and wanted you, he could get you. But I'm not so sure that he _would_ want you. He couldn't see you, anyhow; and if he could, he'd rather have a good fat salmon."
Bobby shuddered as he looked at the tiny squid in his hand, and thought of the dreadful possibilities in one a thousand times as big.
"You leave them alone, and they'll leave you alone," Billy went on. "But if you once make them mad, they can dart their arms out like lightning. 'Tis time to get, then!"
"I'm goin' to keep an ax in my punt after this," said Bobby, "and if I sees an arm slippin' out of the water----"