Late Noon in the West i^s 



diately became entangled in the kelp. It then turned below the wa- 

 ter and, raising its tail, struck with ten-ton blows of solid steel-strong 

 sinew at the dinghy. And the mighty bludgeoning rained down at 

 ten-second intervals, so furiously agile was the devilish creature. 



By what could only have been a miracle, the first strokes missed 

 the frail craft, and this gave its two experienced oarsmen just enough 

 time to pull away, but so crazed and intent upon murder was the 

 beast that it continued to lash the place where the boat had been. 

 This gave the old Chinese an opportunity which, despite his frailty 

 and long lack of practice, he seized with unexpected adroitness. 

 Hefting one of the lances, he drove it to the hilt five times into the 

 underside of the brute near the base of its tail every time that portion 

 of its anatomy flashed aloft. This so enraged the animal that it 

 stopped its hammering and rushed headlong shoreward, dragging 

 the dinghy and an enormous mass of kelp along with it. In a moment 

 it burst out into the clear, shallow water just seaward of the surf 

 that boomed upon the sandy beach. 



But the encounter was not yet over and the real test was still to 

 come. The maddened whale plunged straight into the breakers and 

 then, wriggling around with its belly actually on the bottom, it cun- 

 ningly waited for an incoming wave to make it water-borne. Then 

 it charged directly at the little boat, its tiny useless eyes clearly vis- 

 ible above the surface and jets of blood spurting behind into the 

 creamy foam. Captain Nathan just had time to yell out, " Save your- 

 selves, men! " when the beast was upon him. In a last supreme effort, 

 more in self-defense than by design, he thrust his second harpoon 

 directly into the creature's blowhole, which, as any whaleman 

 knows, is normally the most useless point to try to penetrate. But 

 by some further miracle, or perhaps the sheer force of the strike, 

 the Devil Fish let out a strange squeal and lunged straight down- 

 wards and, although they only found out much later, it actually 

 broke its jaw on some rocks at the bottom, and knocked itself 

 out. 



The captain sank slowly into the belly of the dinghy and list- 

 lessly disentangled his right leg from several coils of the line that 

 was attached to his second harpoon. This line was quite slack; had 

 it not been, he would long since have been yanked overboard, or 

 his leg would have been torn from his body. There was silence but 



