CAUGHT IN A SEA OF GRASS
"It's all up with me and the ship, too," thought Andy as he stood in the small chamber and watched the oncoming of the monster.
However, he was not going to die without a fight, so he raised the electric gun. Yet he knew it was a most forlorn chance.
He aimed straight down the big open mouth and pulled the trigger. The next instant the water all about him was a mass of foam, through which he could dimly see that the whale had halted.
And, as the old hunter watched, in awe and fear at what he saw, he noted that instead of one monster there seemed to be a pair. Together they were threshing the sea into a bloody foam.
Then, turning on the searchlight in his helmet, Andy beheld a terrible sight. The whale had been attacked by a gigantic swordfish at the moment the hunter had fired the shot, and it was that, and not the electric bullet, that had stopped the infuriated animal's rush at the ship.
Ancient enemies, the whale and swordfish, had met in mortal combat. The swordfish had engaged the whale just as it was about to strike what would probably have been a blow that would have disabled the submarine, for with the door of the diving chamber open, the onslaught might not have been withstood.
Rushing here and there, the whale seeking to destroy his enemy with a sweep of the enormous flukes, and the swordfish plunging his bony weapon again and again into the whale, the two monsters fought until the water about the ship was a mass of foam and blood.
Much as he wanted to see the end of the fight, Andy knew it was dangerous to remain longer with the door open.
He closed it, pressed the lever which started the pumps, forcing the water from the chamber and, in a few minutes, emerged into the interior of the ship.