Just once again, before the craft reached the surface, was
there another blow, this time at the stern. But it was a parting
tap, and none others followed.
"They've gone!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, as the whales vanished
from the sight of those in the forward cabin.
"Have you any adequate protection against these monsters of the
deep?" asked Mr. Hardley in a fault-finding voice. "I should
think you would have taken precautions, Swift!"
He had dropped the formal "Mr." and seemed to treat Tom as an
inferior.
"We have other protection than running away," said the young
inventor quietly. "There are guns we can use, and, if the whales
had been far enough away, I could have sent a small torpedo at
them. Close by it would be dangerous to use that, as it would
operate on us just as the depth bombs operated on the German
submarines. However, I fancy we have nothing more to fear."
And Tom was right. When the surface was reached and the main
hatch opened, the sea was calm and there was no sight of the
whales. They evidently had had enough of their encounter with a
steel fish, larger even than themselves.
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