CHAPTER XVI
THE BATTLE
When he gained a full and nearer sight of the Pirate Shark, Mart's courage all but failed him. For a moment the gigantic fish seemed to hang poised in the water above and beyond him, some twenty feet away; what its actual size was Mart could not guess, in the dim and blurred light, but there could never be another such shark as this in all the oceans!
Huge, cruel-eyed, with its mouth showing as he looked up at it, Mart never forgot the horror that seized him at his first face-to-face meeting with the Pirate Shark. He thought of a thousand things in that one moment—the uncanny cunning of the terrible fish in first cutting him off from all help by biting through his lines, poor Bob waiting up above in agonies of suspense, and above all, the awful fact that unless he conquered quickly, he would suffocate.
Still the shark hung poised above him, the immense body motionless except for the gently-waving fins and tail. The big dorsal fin was hidden from him, so he could not see whether it had been pierced by the bullet or not. But he must act, and act quickly! What should he do?
In order to get at the monster shark with the kris, he would have to expose himself. If the brute was cunning enough to cut his lines, he would be too wise to attempt an attack while Mart stood in the wedge-shaped opening of the wreck. There, he could not reach the boy, and would realize it.
Mart wasted no time in hesitation. He was running a terrible risk, for once the shark butted into him or struck him with its tail, he would be flung off his balance and would be lost. But remembering his great lightness in the water, remembering how easily he could leap out of danger, he stepped forward confidently from his shelter, the kris held ready.
No sooner had he done so than the shark began to move. Gradually, with a terrible slowness, the huge shape came forward; the impulse to leap back to shelter was horribly strong, but Mart resisted it.
Around circled the shark, exposing its full length. Mart trembled at the sight, for it seemed to him that the brute must be far longer than the thirty feet which Jerry had assigned as its size. It stretched out quivering in the depths, ghostly, ominous; and most terrible of all was the silence that prevailed over all things. Mart wanted to shout, to yell for aid, and could not.