"But what can we do?" asked Jack.
"Let's go out now and see if we can't kill some of the beasts with the guns," suggested Andy.
"I cannot permit it," answered the inventor. "Our position is bad enough as it is, but to go out would be to lose our lives for a certainty. The suckers would swallow us up in a moment. I must find some other way."
There was a period of silence, while all waited anxiously for what was to happen next. It was not long in coming. The next impact of the ship against the rocks was the hardest yet, and it seemed that more of the suckers must have gripped the craft.
"She's leakin' a little!" exclaimed Washington coming back from an inspection forward. "De water am tricklin' in!"
"We must fight them!" exclaimed Andy. He ran to get a gun and his diving suit.
"Don't try to go out!" warned the professor. "You will surely be killed."
"I'd rather be killed out there than die shut up in the ship!" cried the old hunter. "I'm going out!"
"Wait!" exclaimed Jack suddenly. "I have a plan that may save us!"
"What is it? Speak quickly!" said Mr. Henderson. "We are in desperate straits!"