I see him distinctly; he is bearing down upon us."

"Who? the sloop?" cried Willis, starting up and letting fall the glass
he had in his hand.

"What an extraordinary pace! he bounds into the air, then plumps into
the water, then leaps up again, just like an India-rubber ball, that
touches the ground only to take a fresh spring!"

"Impossible, Master Fritz; the _Nelson_ tops the waves honestly and
gallantly; but as to leaping into the air, she is a little too bulky
for that."

"Ah, poor Willis, it is not the _Nelson_ that is under my glass at
present, but an enormous fish, ten or twelve feet in length."

"Oh, how you startled me!"

"Father! Ernest! prepare to fire! Jack, the harpoon! he is coming this
way."

Fritz stood at the stern of the pinnace, his rifle levelled, following
with his eyes the movements of the monster; when within reach, he
fired with so much success and address that he hit the creature on the
head. It then changed its course, leaving behind a train of blood.

"Let us after him, Willis; quick!"

The Pilot turned the head of the pinnace, and Jack immediately threw
his harpoon.

"Struck!" cried he joyfully.

By the hissing of the line, and then the rapid impulsion of the
pinnace, it was felt that the monster had more strength than the craft
and its crew together.

Ernest and his father fired at the same time; the ball of the former
was lost in the animal's flesh, that of the latter rebounded off a
horny protuberance that armed the monster's upper lip.

Fritz had time to recharge his rifle; he levelled it a second time,
and the ball went to join the former; but, for all that, the pinnace
continued to cleave the water at a furious rate.

Becker seized an axe and cut the rope.

"Oh, father, what a pity! such a splendid capture for our museum of
natural history!"

"It is a sword-fish, children; a monster of a dangerous species, and
of extreme voracity. If, by way of reciprocity, the fish have a museum
at the bottom of the sea, they will have some fine specimens of the
human race that have become the prey of this creature; and it may be
that we were on the way to join the collection."

"Did you observe the formidable dentilated horn?"

"It is by means of this horn or sword, from which it takes its name,
that it wages a continual war with the whale, whose only mode of
escape is by flourishing its enormous tail; but the sword-fish, being
very agile, easily avoids this, bounds into the a