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Page 28
Quickly acquiring momentum, the whale came on like a locomotive,
spouting at intervals, the vapor from the blowholes looking not
unlike steam from some submarine boat.
"He looks to be heading this way," remarked Mr. Durban to Tom.
"He is," agreed the young inventor, "but I guess he'll dive before
he gets here. He only wants to get away from the killer. Look, the
other one is swimming this way, too!"
"Bless my harpoon, but he sure is!" called Mr. Damon. "They'll renew
the fight near here."
But he was mistaken, for the killer, after coming a little distance
after the whale, suddenly turned, hesitated for a moment, and then
disappeared in the depths of the ocean.
The whale, however, continued to come on, speeding through the water
with powerful strokes. There was an uneasy movement among some of
the passengers.
"Suppose he strikes the ship," suggested one woman.
"Nonsense! He couldn't," said her husband.
"The old man had better get under way, just the same," remarked a
sailor near Tom, as he looked up at the bridge where the captain was
standing.
The "old man," or commander, evidently thought the same thing, for,
after a glance at the oncoming leviathan, which was still headed
directly for the vessel, he shoved the lever of the telegraph signal
over to "full speed ahead."
Hardly had he done so than the whale sank from sight.
"Oh, I'm so glad!" exclaimed the woman who had first spoken of the
possibility of the whale hitting the ship, "I am afraid of those
terrible creatures."
"They're as harmless as a cow, unless they get angry," said her
husband.
Slowly the great ship began to move through the water. Tom and his
friends were about to go back to their cabin, for they thought the
excitement over, when, as the young inventor turned from the rail,
he felt a vibration throughout the whole length of the steamer, as
if it had hit on a sand-bar.
Instantly there was a jangling of bells in the engine room, and the
Soudalar lost headway.
"What's the matter?" asked several persons.
They were answered a moment later, for the big whale, even though
grievously wounded in his fight with the killer, had risen not a
hundred feet away from the ship, and was coming toward it with the
speed of an express train.
"Bless my blubber!" cried Mr. Damon. "We must have hit the whale, or
it hit us under the water and now it's going to attack us!"
He had no more than gotten the words out of his mouth ere the great
creature of the deep came on full tilt at the vessel, struck it a
terrific blow which made it tremble from stem to stern, and careen
violently.
There was a chorus of frightened cries, sailors rushed to and fro,
the engine-room bells rang violently, and the captain and mates
shouted hoarse orders.
"Here he comes again!" yelled Mr. Durban, as he hurried to the side
of the ship. "The whale takes us for an enemy, I guess. and he's
going to ram us again!"
"And if he does it many times, he'll start the plates and cause a
leak that won't be stopped in a hurry!" cried a sailor as he rushed
past Tom.
The young inventor looked at the oncoming monster for a moment, and
then started on the run for his cabin.
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