"Dive and stay under as long as you can," vowed the hippopotamus, shaking the water out of her eyes and looking cheerily up at the Captain. "You see, I was right about those creeping vines, now wasn't I?" Nikobo, having done a little investigating on her own account, was well nigh ready to burst with pride at Tandy's quick action and the way in which the vines had overcome their gigantic foe.
"RIGHT!" boomed Samuel Salt, hurrying off for his oxygen helmet and powerful diamond toothed saw. Ato was too bruised and exhausted to rise, but Tandy and Roger, perching on the ship's rail, watched Samuel in his queer diver's helmet climb down the rope ladder and clamber up on the hippopotamus. Next minute Nikobo had disappeared under the surface and presently from the slight shiver and shake of the boat they knew that Samuel was determinedly at work cutting them loose. Fortunately there was room between the ship's bottom and the whale's head for Nikobo to swim about, and so splintering sharp was Samuel's saw that in less than five minutes he had cut off the great column of ivory level with the ship's bottom, carefully calking the edges with material he had brought down. In its tight and live wood crate the Narwhal could not stir an inch, and, while the cutting of its horn was not painful, it blubbered and spouted so terrifically that Samuel and Nikobo heaved tremendous sighs of relief when the dangerous operation was accomplished.
Backing off a few paces, Nikobo began butting the crated sea beast with her head till she had driven it out from beneath the boat. Roger and Tandy, with little shrieks of wonder and excitement, saw the crated fish like some queer and monstrous mummy rise to the surface and go floating sullenly away toward the east. Now that they had a full view of the Narwhal they saw that it was three times the length of the Crescent Moon.
"A great wonder Sammy didn't tie it to the ship and tow it along," sighed Ato, who had at last got to his feet and draped himself weakly over the rail. "Some fishin'—eh, Mates?"
"But look at the beautiful mast we have!" cried Tandy, waving to Nikobo and the Captain as they came cheerfully alongside.
"Huh! you're as bad as Sammy," grunted Ato, rubbing his bruises sorrowfully. "And of course a mast was just what we were needing! Whale of a mast! Mast of a whale! HUH!"
