e on the
end by two and a half feet long, out of a closet under the chart
table. In it was a little figure of a Jarvis's sea-monster; long body
tapering to a three-fluked tail, wide horizontal flippers like the
wings of an old pre-contragravity aircraft, and a long neck with a
little head and a wide tusked mouth.

"Always get him from in front," he said. "Aim right here, where his
chest makes a kind of V at the base of the neck. A 50-mm will go six
or eight feet into him before it explodes, and it'll explode among his
heart and lungs and things. If it goes straight along his body, it'll
open him up and make the cutting-up easier, and it won't spoil much
wax. That's where I always shoot."

"Suppose I get a broadside shot?"

"Why, then put your shell right under the flukes at the end of the
tail. That'll turn him and position him for a second shot from in
front. But mostly, you'll get a shot from in front, if the ship's down
near the surface. Monsters will usually try to attack the ship. They
attack anything around their own size that they see," he told me. "But
don't ever make a body shot broadside-to. You'll kill the monster, but
you'll blow about five thousand sols' worth of wax to Nifflheim doing
it."

It had been getting dusky while I had been shooting; it was almost
full dark now, and the _Javelin's_ lights were on. We were making
close to Mach 3, headed east now, and running away from the remaining
daylight.

We began running into squalls of rain, and then rain mixed with wet
snow. The underside lights came on, and the lookout below began
reporting patches of sea-spaghetti. Finally, the boat was dropped out
and went circling away ahead, swinging its light back and forth over
the water, and radioing back reports. Spaghetti. Spaghetti with a big
school of screwfish working on it. Funnel-mouths working on the
screwfish. Finally the speaker gave a shrill whistle.

"_Monster ho!_" the voice yelled. "About ten points off your port bow.
We're circling over it now."

"Monster ho!" Kivelson yelled into the intercom, in case anybody
hadn't heard. "All hands to killing stations." Then he saw me standing
there, wondering what was going to happen next. "Well, mister, didn't
you hear me?" he bellowed. "Get to your gun!"

Gee! I thought. I'm one of the crew, now.

"Yes sir!" I grabbed the handrail of the ladder and slid down, then
raced aft to the gun turret.

9

MONSTER KILLING

There was a man in the t