By permission of Mr. Chas. Fredk. Holder.
"He'll charge again in a minute," the captain said quietly, "look out always for the second rush."
The words were scarcely out of his lips when the fin appeared. Once again, as before, that great mass of dynamic energy hurled itself at the boat, but twenty yards away there came a sudden check and the swordfish dived. A second passed—so long that it seemed like a minute, while Colin waited shiveringly to hear the crashing of the timbers and to see that fearful weapon flash up between them, but as silently as a shadow the lithe gray fighting machine shot up from the deep a
yard or two astern of the boat and, falling limply, turned on his side, dead.
The captain smiled.
"If he had lived about a half a second longer," he said, "I reckon this boat would be on its way to the bottom now."