bly 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