Free 03 Underwater Adventure by Willard Price Page A

or afraid.
    Blake bottled his fear and turned to face the shark, waving his arms menacingly.
    At once the shark stopped, but now it was only four feet away.
    Blake tested another theory. It was that a shark is more likely to attack at or near the surface because that is where it finds most of its food, helpless or dying fish, garbage from ships. At greater depths it is more wary.
    Blake exhaled and sank slowly through the blue-green depths. The shark promptly came down after him but now did not venture so close. It began to circle him at a distance of fifteen or twenty feet.
    Suddenly the shark noticed Hal who was still operating the camera from quite near the surface. The great tail gave one mighty thrash and the body shot up towards the big glassy eye of the machine.
    Mixed with Hal’s fear was the thrill of photographing an oncoming shark. It loomed bigger and bigger and kept on coming. Hal kept his finger on the button and the film whirred through the camera. Now the great head filled the whole picture. Now a cave yawned as the monster opened its savage mouth, revealing rows of sharp white shovels.
    With all his strength Hal banged the heavy metal-encased camera against the brute’s nose.
    Promptly it changed course, sliding past him and scraping the skin from his shoulder with its sandpaper hide.
    Hal turned to face another attack, but now he was joined by Blake who tested the merits of his shark billy by bringing it down with a resounding whack on the already bruised nose of the mako.
    The shark swam away but immediately returned in a more deadly mood than ever.
    Roger could not stay on the sidelines any longer. He swam in with his knife bared. He disregarded Hal’s violent gestures warning him to stay out of range.
    The shark saw him and came for him, its open mouth as big as a barrel. At the last moment, Roger twisted to one side and gripped the right pectoral fin. Hanging on
    to it, he was dragged along by the big fish. He sank his knife into the white underbelly. Red blood gushed forth.
    Blake had clutched the other pectoral fin and his knife was sinking deep and often into the great carcass. Hal knew his duty as a photographer and kept the camera whirring. This was a picture of pictures.
    The smell of the blood spreading through the water brought a sudden rush of new visitors. Sharks appeared from nowhere, from everywhere, ravenous beasts, fearless with blood lust.
    Blake and Roger fell away from the bleeding mako and left it to the furious attacks of its brother sharks. The pink water boiled with the thrashing of their great tails.
    All would have been well if the savage creatures had kept their attention on the wounded mako, but in their fury they were ready to attack and devour anything. They lunged at the swimmers who wielded their shark billies and knives with deadly effect.
    Blake ripped open the envelope on his ankle and signalled to the others to do the same. The cupric acetate spread a yellow tinge to join the pink of the blood-stained sea.
    However much this repellent might have deterred a shark under normal circumstances, it had no effect whatever upon this bloodthirsty mob. The big fish were at too high a pitch of excitement to be discouraged by an unpleasant smell.
    The three swimmers moved back cautiously towards the ship, fighting a rearguard action against the demented beasts. Here were mako sharks, blue sharks, white sharks and hammerheads, all of them intent on snapping up these human morsels floating in the pink sea.
    Reaching the foot of the ladder, Blake seized Roger and made him go up first. But when nothing of Roger was left in the water except his feet, a mako lunged at those white fishlike things with such determination that Roger had to drop back into the sea to defend himself.
    Above, leaning over the rail of the Lively Lady, was the laughing face of Skink. He was enjoying this spectacle enormously. Blake called to him to come down and help, but he blithely declined the invitation. No