Part 25 (1/2)

At sixty feet I stopped for aA fat old Albacore shark swa, but he paid us no attention and I lowered the spear as he drifted away into the hazy distance

Sloe rose to the next decompression stop at forty feet, where we stay6d for two en in our blood to evaporate out through our lungs gradually Then up to twenty feet for the next stop

I peered into Sherry's face- her courage and cheek It was all going s whisky - just another twelve minutes

The whaleboat was so close it seemed that I could touch it with the spear I could quite clearly see Chubby's and Angelo's brown faces hanging over the side as they waited anxiously for us to e another careful search of the water about us At the extree of my vision, where the haze of water shaded away to solid blue, I saw so one before I had really seen it, but I felt the returning prickle of fear and apprehension

I hung in the water, co while the last fe ed by like crippled insects

The shadow passed again, this time clearly seen, a swift and deadly movement that left me in no doubt that it was not an Albacore shark It was the difference between the shape of the prowling hyena in the shadows around the campfire and that of the lion when he hunts

Suddenly, through the misty blue curtains of water, came the second white death shark He ca to ignore us and going on al steeply and returning to pass us again, like a caged ani the bars

Sherry cowered close to rip in which she had it I needed both hands now

On the next pass the shark broke the pattern of itscircles which always precede attack Around and around it went, with that pale yellow eye fastened hungrily upon us

Suddenly my attention was distracted by the slow descent from above of a dozen of the blue plastic shark repellent containers Seeing our predicament Chubby must have emptied the entire boxful over the side One of theh for me to snatch it up and hand it to sherry

It smoked blue dye in her hand, and I transferred my attention back to the shark It had sheered off a little fro loathsolanced at my watch, threeSherry out ahead of en fizz in her blood, she would probably be safe in anotherin relentlessly on us

Close - so very close that I looked deep into the black spear-headed pupil of his eye, and read his intention there

I glanced at the watch It was cutting it fine - very fine, but I decided to send Sherry up I slapped her shoulder and pointed urgently to the surface She hesitated, but I slapped her again and repeatedup slowly, the right way, but her legs dangled invitingly The shark lefther

She saw it and began to rise faster, smoothly the shark closed in on her Noas under them both, and I finned out fast to one side just as the shark went into the stiff, tailed attitude which signalled the instant of his attack

I was directly under him, as he turned to maul Sherry I reached up and pressed the spear-head into the softly obscene throat, and I hit the trigger

I saw the shock kick into the bloated white flesh, and the shark reared aith a convulsive beat of its tail It shot upwards and went out through the surface, leaping out high and clear, and falling back heavily in a creaan to spin and fly in h beset by a swarm of bees Repeatedly its jaws opened and snapped closed

Torn with terrible anxiety, I watched Sherry maintain her mental discipline and rise leisurely towards the whale, boat A pair of huge broere thrust down through the surface to welcome her As I watched, she caers closed on her like steel grabhooks and she was plucked with th from the water

I could now eh the next few minutes before I could follow her -The shark seeed its

It began again on the wide circulanced at in to rise through the final stage

I drifted upwards slowly The agony of the bends was fresh incloser and closer

Ten feet below the whaleboat, I paused again and the shark was suspicious, probably re the recent violent explosion in its throat It ceased its circling and hung s of his pectoral fins We stared at each other across a distance of fifteen feet, and I could sense that the great blue beast was gathering himself for the final rush

I extended the spear to the full reach of er hie was an inch froer and he reared back in shock as the explosive cracked He whirled away in a wide angry turn and I dropped the spear and shot for the surface

He was angry as a wounded lion, goaded by the hurts he had received, and he charged for e as a blueopen I knew there was no turning hi short of death would stop him

As I shot for the surface I saw Chubby's hands waiting for ers like a bunch of brown bananas, and I loved hiht ar it to Chubby and as the shark flashed across the last few feet that separated us I felt Chubby's fingers close on my wrist

Then the water exploded abouton my arm and the powerful disruption of the water as the shark's bulk tore it apart Then I was lying on ed froot some nice pets, Harry,” said Chubby in a disinterested tone that I kneas forced, and I looked about quickly for Sherry

”You okay?” I called, as I saw her wet and pale-faced in the stern She nodded; I doubted she could speak

I jerked out the quick release pin on ht of the scuba

”Chubby, set up a stick of gelly ready to shoot,” I called, as I rid myself of mask and fins and peered over the side of the whaleboat

The shark was still with us, circling the whaleboat in a it” of hurt and frustration He cath of his dorsal fin above the surface I knew he could easily attack and stove in the planking of the whaleboat

”Oh God, Harry, he's horrible! Sherry found her voice at last, and I kne she felt I hated that loathsome fish with the full force of my recent terror - but I had to distract it froive me that Moray and a bait-knife,” I shouted and he handed me the cold slimy body I hacked off a tenpound lump of the dead eel and tossed it into the pool

The shark swirled and raced for the scrap, gulping it down and scraping the hull of the whaleboat as it passed so close We rocked violently at its passing

”Hurry up, Chubby,” I shouted, and fed the shark another lu past under the hull and again bu thie- boat so that it swayed unpleasantly and Sherry squeaked and grabbed the gunwale

”Ready,” said Chubby, and I passed him a two-foot section of the eel with its e open like a pouch

”Put the stick in there, and tie it up,” I instructed hirin

”Hey, Harry,” he chortled, ”I like it”

While I fed the monster with scraps of eel, Chubby trussed up the stick of gelignite in a neat parcel of eel flesh, with the insulated copper wire protruding from it He passed it to me

”Connect her up,” I instructed, as I coiled a dozen loops of the wire into rinned Chubby, and I threw the bundle ofshark

It raced for it, and its glistening blue back broke the surface as it sed the offering Ian to stream away over the side and I paid out more from the reel

”Let him eat it down,” I said and Chubby nodded happily ”Okay, Chubby, blow the bastard to hell,” I snarled as the fish ca around us in another circle, with the copper wire trailing from the corner of the sickle-moon mouth

Chubby hit the switch, and the shark erupted in a tall burst of pink spray, like a bursting water led with the paler flesh and purple contents of the belly cavity, sputtirig fifty feet into the air and splattering the pool and whaleboat The shattered carcass ed like a bleeding log upon the surface, then rolled over and began to sink