Free 05 Whale Adventure by Willard Price Page A

raising its middle so that it looked like a great blade arch over the waves.
    ‘Back away!’ yelled Brown.
    But there was no room to back away. The eighty-foot arch came down with a thunderous crash, barely missing the boat. The wave produced by the fall of some one hundred and twenty tons of whale washed the boat high up on to the flank of an uncle, from which it slid back into the sea, still right side up but full of water to the gunwales.
    The men bailed furiously, expecting another attack at any moment. But they looked up to see with astonishment that the big whale had left them. It was swimming away from the pod.
    The reason was plain. The ship had drawn nearer, and the great whale in its agony was about to attack it.
    If that rock-hard head collided squarely with the keel below the water-line the timbers would be stove in.
    Many a sailing ship had been sunk in this fashion, and occasionally a vessel under steam power or diesel.
    Grindle in the rings could be heard bawling orders to the helmsman. The ship began to veer to port. The whale was ploughing ahead at a good twenty knots. The men watched anxiously. Would the ship turn in time?’
    Whale and ship met. Men breathed again. It had not been a square hit. The whale struck the vessel’s side a glancing blow and slid off towards the stern. The vessel shook itself like a dog and the sails shivered, but her hull was still sound beneath her.
    The whale did not try again. He seemed to remember that he had some unfinished business to attend to. Back he came towards the boat, whose deadly irons were already draining away his life. He was still spouting, but now his spout blazed blood-red.
    ‘His chimney’s afire!’ yelled one of the men.
    The monster sank out of sight.
    ‘He’s done for!’ shouted one.
    ‘No such luck!’ came the voice of the second mate whose boat was still held off by the circling uncle. He called to Brown:
    ‘Look out below!’
    ‘Aye aye, sir!’
    Brown and his crew looked over the gunwales into the depths. Hal at first could see nothing. Then he made out a small white spot. It seemed only as big as a hand, but it was rising and it rapidly grew in size as it rose.
    Then he could make it out plainly. It was the open mouth of the bull whale. The enormous teeth, each as big as Hal’s head, were ready for action.
    ‘Full astern!’ yelled Brown.
    The men pulled, but it was no use. A whale blocked the way, and there was another ahead. With terrible speed the open jaws rose towards the middle of the boat. The men tumbled out of the way, some aft, some forward. One man was not quick enough. He was caught between the two twenty-foot jaws as they closed in, one on either side of the boat, and crushed it like an eggshell.
    The two ends of the crippled craft drifted apart, men in the water clinging to them, and thanking their stars they had something to cling to.
    What had happened to the man who had been caught? There was just a chance that he lay unharmed in the beast’s mouth and would be thrown out when the jaws opened. Hal watched anxiously.
    But when the great mouth sprang open it was empty. The monster that could attack and devour a cuttlefish almost as large as itself had had no difficulty in swallowing this human morsel.
    If the man had escaped being injured by the closing teeth, was he still alive? It was a fantastic thought. However, there was the story of Jonah and the whale, a story that was supposed to be based upon fact. The stomach of a whale was as big as a good-sized cupboard. There might possibly be enough air in it to sustain life for a short time. Now and then a shark, still alive, has been taken from a whale’s stomach. But a man is not so tough as a shark.
    The mad bull thrashed about among the wreckage, his great jaws crunching everything within reach. The men had to let go their hold upon the pieces of the boat and swim to one side. There was always the danger of an attack by the other whales. Sharks had been drawn by the