"Many hands make light work"; and in just two months from the day of
starting work upon the cutter she was complete, rigged, and ready for
launching. She was of the most up-to-date type with which Escombe was
acquainted; that is to say, beamy, rather shallow of body, with spoon
bow, and a fin keel, and her designer felt particularly proud of her as
he walked round her and critically surveyed her lines and general shape
the last thing before giving the word to put her into the water.
Needless to say she was also the object of great and ever-increasing
curiosity to the inhabitants of the valley generally, not more than
perhaps a dozen of whom had ever seen anything more handy and shipshape
than the unwieldy balsa, or raft constructed of reeds, a not very
manageable craft at the best of times, and of course quite incapable of
being navigated under sail except before the wind. The cutter was got
into the water without accident, and after some slight readjustment of
her inside ballast, to bring her accurately to her correct water line,
her young owner got on board and, a nice sailing breeze happening to be
blowing right down the lake, took her for a trial spin from one end of
the lake to the other, running down and beating back. The result was
eminently satisfactory in every respect, the little vessel developing a
fine turn of speed, not only before the wind but also close-hauled,
while she was of course, like all craft of similar form, remarkably
weatherly; indeed the smartness with which she worked back against the
wind, from the lower end of the lake, was regarded by the
unsophisticated inhabitants of the valley as nothing short of
miraculous.
Meanwhile, Escombe having given instructions for the manufacture of a
hardened copper hook, with two fathoms of chain attached, and a stout
rope of plaited raw hide, at the same time that he had put the yacht in
hand, these articles were now ready. Therefore, after exercising his
crew for a week, to get them thoroughly accustomed to the working of the
new craft, he made arrangements for a grand plesiosaurus hunt, to which
he invited his stanch friend Umu, and three or four other nobles who had
manifested a capacity for development into kindred spirits.
On a certain glorious morning this novel fishing party embarked on board
the yacht, taking with them, of course, their fishing line and the
carcasses of two llamas, cut in half, for bait, together with a
formidable battery of bows and arrows, spears, heavy maces, and other
weapons for the killing of their quarry when captured; to which armament
Escombe added his magazine rifle and two packets of cartridges, which
the faithful Arima had been careful to bring away from the survey camp,
together with everything else belonging to his young master, on the
memorable occasion of that individual's abduction. Starting under easy
sail, and heading for the bottom of the lake, the great fishing line--
made fast by its inner end to the windlass bitts, and the remainder of
it led aft outside and clear of all rigging--was baited and paid out
astern as soon as the cutter had run into deep water.
It was not very long before the party, intently on the watch for the
approach of the plesiosauri, detected a strong, swirling ripple mingling
with that of the yacht's wake, which indicated that at least one of the
monsters was at hand, and presently the ripple broke, revealing some six
feet of smooth, black, glistening back keeping pace with the little
vessel, while occasionally, when the light favoured, an indistinct and
momentary glimpse might be caught, through the swirling water, of two
enormous, glaring eyes. But the beast, in its eagerness to reach its
supposed prey, had apparently passed the baited hook as unworthy of its
notice, for the bait was a long way astern of the creature, which seemed
intent only on overtaking the yacht, for it now made frequent rushes
forward until it was within a few fathoms of the little vessel's
counter, and then sank out of sight and dropped astern again, as though
it knew not what to make of the moving object ahead of it. But,
provokingly enough, from the sportsmen's point of view, it never dropped
far enough astern to bring it level with the bait, while, on the other
hand, when it approached the yacht it was careful to keep far enough
below the surface to render anything like an accurate aim impossible;
indeed it behaved as though it instinctively knew that danger threatened
it. Although Escombe's companions were eager enough to waste their
arrows in obviously futile attempts to hit it, the young leader of the
expedition rigorously forbade everything of the nature of chance
shooting, lest the creature should happen to receive a more or less
slight wound, and thus be driven to flight. And, for the same reason,
Escombe himself declined to attempt a shot with his rifle.
But while they were all intently watching the movements of the creature,
and standing with weapons in hand, ready to discharge an effective shot
at the first favourable opportunity, a sudden, startled yell from Arima,
who was tending the fishing line, caused the whole party to wheel round
to see what was the matter, and Harry had only bare time to drop his
rifle and grip his faithful henchman by the belt, to thus prevent him
from being dragged overboard, as the line suddenly tautened out like a
bar, flinging up a great shower of spray as it did so, while a terrific
plunge in the water far astern revealed the fact that a second monster,
whose presence had hitherto been undetected, had taken the bait and
become hooked.
"Let go the line, you idiot, let go!" hissed Escombe through his
clenched teeth, as he braced his feet against a stanchion and flung
himself back, clinging with both hands to Arima's belt, while that
individual vainly strove to hold the now frantically struggling
reptile--"let go, man, if you don't want to be dragged overboard and
eaten alive! Haul down the foresail, there, for'ard!"
The stout raw-hide line twanged like a harp-string as the terrified
Arima relaxed his convulsive grip on it and was hauled back inboard to
safety by his master, and the yacht's forward progress was checked with
an abruptness that threatened to drag the bitts out of her as the strain
of the line, with the plunging, struggling monster at the end of it, was
suddenly thrown upon them, while the shock sent every individual, fore
and aft, sprawling upon the deck, to the uproarious and most undignified
amusement of the young Inca, and the mortal terror of his faithful
subjects. Then, as all hands scrambled to their feet again and
instinctively regained possession of their weapons, the hooked saurian
started to "run", in the vain hope, possibly, of breaking away from the
restraining influence which had so suddenly and unaccountably seized
upon it. The yacht was whirled violently round--almost capsizing in the
process--and dragged, with her bows nearly buried in the hissing and
curling water, back toward the head of the lake, at a steadily
increasing pace, as the now thoroughly terrified plesiosaurus surged
forward at headlong speed in its frenzied endeavour to escape, with its
companion keeping pace by its side.
The yacht had only travelled a distance of some three miles down the
lake when the monster had taken the bait, and on the backward journey
this distance was covered in about a quarter of an hour--a fact which
bore eloquent testimony to the tremendous strength of the creature.
Harry was beginning to feel exceedingly uneasy lest his vessel should be
towed into such shallow water that he would be compelled to cut the line
in order to save her from being dragged ashore, when the quarry, which
probably also objected to shallow water, wheeled suddenly right round
and, rushing close past the cutter, in a perfect maelstrom of foam and
spray, headed back for the lower end of the lake, with its companion
still bearing it company. To thrust the helm hard over, and to shout to
everybody to lie down and hang on for their lives, was, with Harry, the
work of but a moment; yet the yacht, handy as she was on her helm, had
scarcely swept halfway round when the stout line again jerked itself
taut, the terrific strain again came upon the bitts, causing them to
ominously creak and groan, and once more the little vessel heeled
gunwale under as she was whirled violently round, until she righted
again and ploughed up a glassy sheet of foam-laced water on either bow
as she tore along in the wake of the monster reptiles.
"This cannot possibly last very much longer," remarked Escombe
reassuringly to his companions, who had by this time turned a sickly,
greenish-yellow with terror at so unaccustomed an adventure--and that,
too, on an element to which they were practically strangers--"the brute
will soon become exhausted at this rate, and when he does we will haul
him alongside and finish him off with our spears and arrows. I don't
care how far he runs, so long as he heads as he is now going; it is
those sudden twists and turns that are dangerous. If he were to break
away we should probably never have a chance to hook him again."
Nevertheless, despite Harry's confident prognostication, they had
traversed quite half the length of the lake ere there was the slightest
perceptible sign of the creature weakening; and they accomplished
another quarter of the distance ere the reptile slackened speed
sufficiently to admit of their attempting to haul the yacht up alongside
it. Then, when they at length proceeded to make the attempt, the
additional strain thrown on the rope, as it was hauled in and coiled
down, seemed to exhaust the last remnant of the brute's strength, and,
stopping suddenly, it rose to the surface and, throwing its head out of
the water, shook it savagely from side to side in a futile endeavour to
shake itself free of the hook, emitting a curious grunting kind of roar
as it did so.
Yet, even now, the creature was not conquered; for when it found itself
being hauled alongside the yacht it suddenly sank, and nearly the whole
of the length of rope that had been hauled in was allowed to run out
again ere Harry, by taking a quick turn round the bitts, was able to
stay its downward progress. And then it became a matter of sheer,
downright drag by all hands ere the huge bulk could be brought near
enough to the surface to permit of the use of their weapons on it, when
it was found that its companion still clung faithfully to its side.
At length, after some fifteen minutes of exhausting labour on the one
hand, opposed to stolid dogged resistance on the other, the monster
reptile was dragged so close to the surface that the point of its snout
was actually raised above the level or the water, and the whole of the
gigantic body, right down to the extremity of the broad-ended tail,
could be clearly seen hanging suspended vertically in the pellucid
depths beneath the yacht, while swimming agitatedly round and round the
suspended body could occasionally be seen the creature's mate, now
plunging deep, as though, thoroughly terrified, it had at length
determined to abandon so dangerous a neighbourhood, and anon returning
with a swift rush to the surface, and furious dartings to and fro, as
though meditating an attempt at the rescue of its companion.
And now, for the first time, the hunters were able to obtain a
thoroughly clear and satisfactory view, at close quarters, of the
gruesome-looking brutes, and a truly hideous and nightmare-inspiring
sight it was; a sight which, as Escombe gazed at the ponderous,
powerful, thick-skinned bodies, the enormous, protruding, balefully
glaring eyes, and the long, cavernous, gaping jaws, armed with great
serrated teeth--those of the upper jaw fitting in between those of the
lower--caused him to feel, more strongly than ever, the conviction that
in destroying the creatures he was a public benefactor.
The captured brute now hung so nearly motionless, with the point of the
great barbed hook protruding through its upper jaw, that it was evident
its strength must be practically exhausted; and Escombe, standing by to
open fire with his magazine rifle in case of an emergency, gave the word
to his companions to deal the death stroke, advising some to endeavour
to reach the creature's brain by means of a spear-thrust through the
eye, while others were to attempt to pierce the heart. But, with the
arrival of the crucial moment, the nerves of the natives seemed to
suddenly fail them; they became flurried and frightened in the very act
of raising their weapons to strike, and every man of them missed his
mark, inflicting many serious and doubtless painful wounds, but not one
that seemed in the least degree likely to prove mortal. The result was
the immediate resumption of a struggle so violent that for a breathless
minute or two it really seemed as though the cutter, stout little craft
as she was, would be dragged under water and sunk. And in the very
height of the confusion one of the hunters must needs fall overboard
into the midst of the boiling flurry of bloodstained foam raised by the
struggles of the frantic brute, and was only dragged aboard again by
Harry in the very nick of time to save him from the terrific rush of the
second plesiosaurus. Then the young leader of the party, seeing that
his companions were too completely unnerved to be of any use, and that
the violent struggles of the wounded brute threatened to seriously
injure, if they did not actually destroy, the cutter, stepped forward,
and, raising his rifle, seized the opportunity afforded by a pause of a
fraction of a second in the violent movements of the creature, and sent
a bullet crashing through its right eye into its brain. That settled
the matter. The struggles ceased for a moment or two with startling
suddenness; a convulsive, writhing movement followed; then came a
terrible shudder, and with a final gasping groan the monster yielded up
its life and hung motionless, its body supported, still in an upright
position, by the great hook through its jaw. With the crack of
Escombe's rifle the second monster had suddenly vanished.
The question now was, what was to be done with the carcass of the dead
plesiosaurus. As Harry stood there, contemplatively regarding it, it
was perfectly obvious to him that if the great fish hook were cut out of
the creature's jaw with an axe, the body would at once sink to the
bottom of the lake, and there would be an end of it, so far as he was
concerned, and the party would at once be free to resume their fishing,
although he had his doubts as to whether, after what had already
happened, another of the monsters could be tempted to take the baited
hook. But it suddenly occurred to him that, the plesiosaurus being to
all intents and purposes an extinct and antediluvian animal, the only
remains of it in existence must necessarily consist of such fossilised
fragments as had been accidentally discovered in the course of
excavation, and that the complete skeleton of such a gigantic specimen
as that before him would be regarded as a priceless acquisition by the
curator of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington; so he at once
resolved to take the necessary steps for its preservation. He gave
orders for the line to which the hook was bent to be led aft, for
convenience of towage, and then commanded his crew to set the cutter's
sails, his purpose being to tow the carcass to a lonely part of the
shore, and there have the body hauled up out of water, the flesh
carefully removed from the bones, and the skeleton as carefully
disarticulated, prior to packing it for dispatch to England.
But the cutter was scarcely under way, and heading for the spot that had
been selected as suitable for the above operations, when a disturbance
of the water near at hand indicated the presence of some bulky moving
body, most probably the companion of the dead creature, which had been
terrified into temporary flight by the report of Harry's rifle. The
animal, however, or whatever it might be, remained invisible, the little
swirling eddies and ripples on the surface of the water alone betraying
its whereabouts. But while Harry and his friends were discussing this
appearance, and wondering what it might portend, one of them happened to
glance around him in another direction, and his startled exclamation
caused the rest of the party to look in the direction toward which he
pointed. And there, somewhat to their consternation, the party saw, not
half a dozen yards away, on the cutter's weather beam, the indications
that two more of the monsters were present, keeping way with the cutter,
and, as was presently pretty evident, edging in toward her; indeed, so
close were they to her that an occasional momentary flicker of the black
back of the nearer of the two could already be caught through the
gleaming water. Two or three of the nobles who had by this time
succeeded in pulling themselves together and getting a grip upon their
courage, proposed an instant attack upon the monsters; but Escombe felt
that, for the moment, he had as much upon his hands as he could manage.
For with that huge dead bulk in tow the cutter was scarcely under
command, and he had no desire to scare the creatures away by commencing
an attack upon them which he could not follow up.
The choice, however, was not left to him for long; for within five
minutes of the discovery of the last arrivals all three of the
plesiosauri, as with one consent and at a signal, closed in upon the
carcass of their comrade, and, flinging themselves upon it with the
utmost fury, gave themselves up to the task of tearing it to pieces, the
work being accomplished in the midst of a foaming, splashing turmoil of
water that was absolutely terrifying to witness, which caused the little
cutter to pitch and roll to such an extent that it was almost impossible
to retain a footing upon her heaving deck. Whether the creatures made
any attempt to devour the great lumps of flesh that they tore from the
violently swaying carcass it was quite impossible to determine, but in
any case the process of disintegration was a speedy one, for in less
than ten minutes from the moment of attack all that was left attached to
the hook was the head of the defunct saurian.
Justly vexed at this malicious interference with his plans, and
determined to save at least this last relic as a trophy of his prowess,
the young Inca gave orders for the head to be hauled inboard; but upon
the first attempt to do this, one of the monsters made a savage rush and
seized the head in its great jaws, worrying it as a dog worries a rat,
giving utterance as it did so to a succession of horrid grunting kind of
growls that caused most of the hearers to break into a cold
perspiration. So tenaciously did the brute retain its grip that for a
few minutes the onlookers were almost persuaded that it was hooked; but
ultimately it released the mangled fragment--which its powerful jaws had
by this time crushed and splintered almost out of recognition--and,
retreating some thirty yards, suddenly wheeled and came foaming back to
the yacht, at which it made a furious dash, with the apparent
determination to climb on board and sweep her deck clear of its human
freight. So resolute, indeed, was it in driving home its attack that it
actually succeeded in getting its two fore flippers in on the boat's
deck, scattering its occupants right and left, and almost driving two or
three over the side, while so heavily was the boat listed by the weight
of the monster, that Harry, sliding upon the steeply inclined deck, had
the narrowest possible escape of being precipitated headlong into the
creature's gaping jaws, and indeed only saved himself by stretching out
his hand and thrusting the snout violently aside, the violence of the
thrust luckily enabling him to recover his equilibrium. Then Umu--who
appeared to be the only native of the party blessed with any real
courage or presence of mind--seeing his beloved master in imminent
danger, as he believed, of being seized and devoured before their eyes,
raised his bow, and hastily fitting an arrow to the string, drew the
shaft to its very head and let it fly into the reptile's throat, where
it stuck fast, inflicting so much pain that the beast at once flung
itself back into the water, roaring and choking, coughing up blood, and
throwing itself into the most indescribable contortions.
Then a very extraordinary thing happened. No sooner did the wounded
plesiosaurus begin to vomit blood than the other two, which had
meanwhile been swimming excitedly to and fro, hurled themselves upon it
in what seemed to be a perfect frenzy of fury, and a most ferocious and
sanguinary battle ensued, the swirling, flying, foam-flecked water being
almost instantly deeply dyed with blood, while the air fairly vibrated
with the terrifying sounds emitted by the combatants. The cutter,
meanwhile, relieved of the heavy drag upon her of the carcass of the
dead plesiosaurus, began to slide rapidly away from the vicinity of the
fighting monsters, and would soon have left them far behind. But this
did not at all suit Harry, who, having undertaken to destroy the
ferocious reptiles, was by no means inclined to leave his task less than
half done. He therefore put the cutter about and, to the mingled
astonishment and dismay of his companions, headed her back toward the
scene of the combat, steering in such a manner as to pass just to
leeward of the spot where the violent commotion in the water showed that
the battle was still raging with unabated fury. Then, as the boat
ranged up alongside, with her foresheet hauled to windward, the great
bodies of the monsters could be seen rushing and plunging and leaping
hither and thither, whereupon the whole party of sportsmen opened a
vigorous and well-directed fire of arrows and javelins upon them, Harry
chiming in with his deadly rifle whenever a good chance for a shot
offered itself. The result of this determined attack was that the young
leader was lucky enough to get in a splendid shot close behind the left
shoulder of one of the struggling brutes, which must have reached its
heart, for upon receiving the bullet the great reptile flung itself more
than half out of the water, uttering a dreadful cry as it did so, and
then, falling back, turned slowly over, and with one last writhing,
convulsive shudder, sank slowly to the bottom of the lake. Meanwhile
the remaining two, both severely wounded, flung themselves upon each
other with such a maniacal intensity of fury as was truly awful to see.
Finally, one of the monsters succeeded in getting a firm grip upon the
throat of the other, and hung on, despite the frantic struggles of the
other to get clear. For perhaps two full minutes the commotion in the
water was positively terrific; then it rapidly decreased until, probably
quite exhausted by the intensity of their prolonged efforts, they lay
practically still upon the surface of the water, their only signs of
life being an occasional slight twist of the body on the part of one or
the other of them. Such an opportunity was much too good to be missed,
and, raising his rifle, Escombe was lucky enough to shoot both the
monsters dead by a couple of rapid, well-directed shots through the
head. The two carcasses immediately began to sink; but before they
vanished completely out of sight, one of the cutter's crew, by means of
a lucky cast, succeeded in hooking one of the defunct saurians with the
great fish hook; and by this means the monster was eventually landed,
with some difficulty, at the spot originally chosen for the purpose.
Thus terminated the great plesiosaurus hunt, after nearly three hours of
the most exciting work that Escombe had ever enjoyed.