Part 24 (2/2)

”Okay?” he asked, and I sucked from the set and nodded Chubby leaned over the side and peered down into the pool ”Okay,” he grunted, ”Johnny Uptail gone somewhere else”

He lifted , and he lowered elo hooked the harness of the extra scuba set for Sherry on to my belt, then he passed me the ten-foot spear and I prayed that I would not drop it

”You go get Miss Sherry out of there,” said Chubby, and I rolled over in a clued duck dive and went down

Even in the craony of the bendsshapes of the white deaths I saw one of the Albacore sharks Cliriging to the shelter of the reef, I kicked and wriggled doards like a maian to recede Renewed pressure of water was reducing the size of the bubbles in htened and I had use of them

I went down faster, and the relief ift and blessed I felt new courage and confidence flooding awaychance now

I was ninety feet down, in clear sight of the botto froht cheered ed extra scuba set for her All I had to do was get it to her

One of the fat ugly Albacore sharks saw me as I slid down the dark cliff face, and he swerved towards ry, he ca his wide tail

I backed up and hung in the water against the cliff, -facing him

I had the spear with its explosive head extended towards hiently to hold ht blue dye from the shark repellent tablets smoked out in a cloud around me

The shark came on in, and I lined up to hit hiills encountered clouds of blue dye he spun away, flapping his tail in shock and disills and eyes, and he retreated hurriedly

”Eat your liver, Chubby Andrews,” I thought ”They work!” Down again I went, al Sherry still crouched in the gunport thirty feet aatchingmine - but I could tell by the volume and scanty rate of flow of bubbles that she had only seconds of breathing ti the cliff - and only her frantic hand signals alertedblue torpedo” He was ski the tops of the ba a tattered streaulp, down the leamed whitely, like the petals of soed, but at the saa thick smoke-screen of blue dye between us

With hard slashi+ng strokes of his tail, he arrowed in the last few yards, but then he hit the blue dye and swirled, altering the direction of his charge as he sheered away

He passed me so close that his tail struckend over end For seconds I lost s, but as I recovered reat shark circling

He swept around th he see as a battleshi+p and as blue and as vast as a surew to almost twice this size This one was still a baby - I was thankful for that

Suddenly the slim steel spear in which I had placed so ardedmembrane flicked occasionally in a sardonic wink, and once he opened his jaws in a convulsive gulp, as though in anticipation of the taste ofcircles, withfrantically with my fins to match his s fro it by the harness on ionary, and I tucked the hilt of the spear underled with the warm flush of adrenalin in the bloodstream, and h - the intensely pleasurable sensation of acute fear to which a man can become an addict

Each detail of the deadly fish was etched indelibly on ill behind the head to the long trailing ribbons of the re by their suckers to the smooth snowy expanse of his belly With a fish of this size, it would only infuriate him further if I went for a hit with the explosive spear on his snout My only chance was for a hit on the brain

I recognized the moment when the shark's distaste for the blue er His tail see his speed up sharply

I bracedthe spare scuba protectively, and the shark turned hard and fast, breaking the wide circle and co in directly at eshaped fangs, and at the moment of strike I dintst the twin steel bottles of the scuba into it

The shark closed its jaws on the decoy and it was torn frorasp, while the i leaf When I had gathered ain I looked around ftantically and found the white death enty feet away,the steel bottles the way a puppy chews a slipper

It was shaking its head in the instinctive reaction which tears lu only deep scratches on the painted metal of the scuba

This washard, I spurted above the broad blue back, brushi+ng the tall dorsal fin and I sank down over hihter pilot froh astern

I reached out with the steel spear and pressed the tip of it firmly on to the curved blue skull, directly between those cold and deadly yellow eyes - and I squeezed the springloaded trigger on the hilt of the spear

The shot fired with a crack that beat in upon rip

The white death shark reared on its tail like a startled horse, and once again I was tossed lightly aside by his careless bulk, but I recovered to watch hio into a terrible frenzy The muscles beneath the smooth skin twitched and rippled at randoed brain, and the shark spun and dived, rolling wildly on its back, arrowing doards to crash snout first into the rocky bottom of the pool, then it stood on its tail and scooted in aih the pale blue waters

Still watching it, and keeping a respecthil distance, I unscrewed the exploded head off the spear and replaced it with a fresh charge

The white death still had Sherry's air supply clamped in his jaws

I could not leave it I trailed his violent, unpredictablestationary for a moment nose down, suspended on the wide flukes of his tail, I shot in again and onceit firinous doe would be transmitted directly to the tiny brain

I fired the shot, cracking painfully in ain but still in that frozen rigour it rolled over slowly and began to sink towards the floor of the pool I darted in and wrested the daed scuba from his jaws

I saw immediately the air hoses had been torn and shredded by the shark's teeth, but the bottles were only extensively scratched

Carrying the lung with me I sprinted across the tops of the baer air bubbles rising froht of her I saw that Sherry had discarded the last e slowly

Yet even in the extremes of slow suffocation she had not made the suicidal atte slowly, but trusting me

As I came down beside her, I pulled out my own mouthpiece and offered it to her Her movements were slow and uncoordinated Theout a torrent of air I grabbed it and forced it into her htly below her level to induce a readier flow of air

She began to breathe Her chest rose and fell in long deep draughts of the precious stuff, and alth and purpose Satisfied I turneda des fro it to replace the one daed by the shark

I breathed off it for half ah to take us through the long period of slow decounport and she grinned lopsidedly around the n and I returned it You okay, ht, and unscrewed the expended head froh

Then once unport out into the open waters of the pool

As the supply of dead fish was depleted so the shark pack seeainly dark shapes still searching and sniffing the tainted waters, but their frenzy was reduced They moved in aSherry out now

I reached for her hand and was surprised at how sesture with a squeeze of her fingers

I pointed to the surface and she nodded I led her out of the gunport and we slid down the hull and under cover of the bamboo crossed quickly to the shelter of the reef

Side by side, still holding hands and with our backs to the cliff, we rose slowly up out of the pool

The light strengthened and when I looked up I could see the whaleboat high above My spirits rose