Part 12 (1/2)

The plan which first suggested itself to the young Inca was the very obvious one of fishi+ng for them with a baited hook and line, even as sharks were fished for True, it would need a very big hook and a very strong line to capture a creature of the size and strength of a plesiosaurus; but to manufacture them was surely not beyond the resources of the inhabitants of the valley Yes; but there was another matter to be considered What about a craft froest balsa that Harry had ever seen upon the lake was not nearly big enough for the purpose; a hooked plesiosaurus would drag it under water without an effort, and then ould become of its occupants? The probabilities were too awful for contemplation, and the idea was not to be entertained for a moment Besides, a balsa was not at all the kind of craft on which to engage in so dangerous a for enough; as needed was a good stanch sturdy boat of, say, twenty tons or so And, having arrived at this point in his meditations, Esob was naturally reminded that he had often wished that he possessed a small yacht wherein to disport himself on the lake Why should he not have one?

His as law; he had but to speak the word and the best and most skilled workers in the valley would be at his disposal for the construction of the vessel And as to her design, why, he had always been an enthusiastic yacht sailor, and knew, as well as most amateurs, what the shape of such a craft should be, and was quite capable of putting that shape on paper in a form that could be worked from

Esob's mind was made up: he would destroy those plesiosauri, and to destroy thened and built as to also afford hireat deal of pleasure, and he would have her And thereupon he set to work and devoted every n, which, a week later, was in the hands of a ser to shohat they could do in a line of work that was entirely new to them

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE SLAYING OF THE MONSTERS

”Many hands ht work”; and in just twowork upon the cutter she was co She was of the most up-to-date type hich Esob 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, notmore handy and shi+pshape than the unwieldy balsa, or raft constructed of reeds, a not very eable craft at the best of tiated under sail except before the wind The cutter was got into the water without accident, and after so 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 fro 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 sainst the wind, froarded by the unsophisticated inhabitants of the valley as nothing short of iven 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 the of the new craft, he rand plesiosaurus hunt, to which he invited his stanch friend Umu, and three or four other nobles who had manifested a capacity for develop this novel fishi+ng party e with the line and the carcasses of two llaether with a formidable battery of bows and arrows, spears, heavyof their quarry when captured; to which arazine rifle and two packets of cartridges, which the faithful Ariether with everything else belonging to his young master, on theunder easy sail, and heading for the botto line-- made fast by its inner end to the windlass bitts, and the re--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 ripplewith that of the yacht's wake, which indicated that at least one of the monsters was at hand, and presently the ripple broke, revealing so pace with the little vessel, while occasionally, when the light favoured, an indistinct andwater, of two enorerness 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 see the yacht, for it now made frequent rushes forward until it ithin a few fathoht and dropped astern again, as though it knew not what to h, froh 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 aih it instinctively knew that danger threatened it Although Esob's coh to waste their arrows in obviously futile atteorously forbade everything of the nature of chance shooting, lest the creature should happen to receive a ht And, for the same reason, Esob himself declined to attempt a shot with his rifle

But while they were all intently watching theeapons in hand, ready to discharge an effective shot at the first favourable opportunity, a sudden, startled yell fro line, caused the whole party to wheel round to see as the rip his faithful henched 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 becoo!” hissed Esob through his clenched teeth, as he braced his feet against a stanchion and flung hi with both hands to Arima's belt, while that individual vainly strove to hold the now frantically struggling reptile--”let go, ed overboard and eaten alive! Haul down the foresail, there, for'ard!”

The stout raw-hide line twanged like a harp-string as the terrified Aririp on it and was hauled back inboard to safety by his ress 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 andInca, and the mortal terror of his faithful subjects Then, as all hands scraained possession of their weapons, the hooked saurian started to ”run”, in the vain hope, possibly, of breaking away fro influence which had so suddenly and unaccountably seized upon it The yacht hirled violently round--aled, 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 co 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 testith of the creature

Harry was beginning to feel exceedingly uneasy lest his vessel should be towed into such shalloater that he would be coed ashore, when the quarry, which probably also objected to shalloater, wheeled suddenly right round and, rushi+ng close past the cutter, in a perfect maelstrom of foam and spray, headed back for the lower end of the lake, with its co it company To thrust the hel on for their lives, ith Harry, the work of but a moment; yet the yacht, handy as she was on her helain jerked itself taut, the terrific strain again caroan, and once unwale under as she hirled violently round, until she righted again and ploughed up a glassy sheet of foa in the wake of the monster reptiles

”This cannot possibly last very ly to his coreenish-yelloith terror at so unaccustomed an adventure--and that, too, on an eleers--”the brute will soon become exhausted at this rate, and when he does ill haul hiside 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 ae should probably never have a chance to hook hinostication, 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 adside 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, seeth, 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, e 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 doard progress And then it becae 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 coth, after so labour on the one hand, opposed to stolid dogged resistance on the other, the ed 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 extre suspended vertically in the pellucid depths beneath the yacht, while swiitatedly round and round the suspended body could occasionally be seen the creature's hly terrified, it had at length deterhbourhood, and anon returning with a swift rush to the surface, and furious dartings to and fro, as thoughan attempt at the rescue of its companion

And now, for the first tihly clear and satisfactory view, at close quarters, of the grueso sight it was; a sight which, as Esob gazed at the ponderous, powerful, thick-skinned bodies, the enor, cavernous, gaping jaws, ar in between those of the lower--caused hily than ever, the conviction that in destroying the creatures he was a public benefactor

The captured brute now hung so nearlythrough its upper jaw, that it was evident its strengthby to open fire with his ave the word to his co some to endeavour to reach the creature's brain by h the eye, while others were to attempt to pierce the heart But, with the arrival of the crucial moment, the nerves of the natives seehtened in the very act of raising their weapons to strike, and everymany serious and doubtless painful wounds, but not one that seeree likely to prove le so violent that for a breathless h the cutter, stout little craft as she ould be dragged under water and sunk And in the very height of the confusion one of the huntersflurry of bloodstained foales of the frantic brute, and was only dragged aboard again by Harry in the very nick of time to save him fro leader of the party, seeing that his companions were too cogles 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 violentthrough its right eye into its brain That settled the les ceased for asuddenness; a convulsive, writhing movement followed; then caroan theht position, by the great hook through its jaw With the crack of Esob's rifle the second monster had suddenly vanished

The question nohat was to be done with the carcass of the dead plesiosaurus As Harry stood there, conte it, it was perfectly obvious to hireat fish hook were cut out of the creature's jaith 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 resuh 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 hi to all intents and purposes an extinct and antediluvian animal, the only remains of it in existence ments as had been accidentally discovered in the course of excavation, and that the coantic speciarded as a priceless acquisition by the curator of the Natural History Museuton; 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 co 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 so body, most probably the companion of the dead creature, which had been terrified into teht by the report of Harry's rifle The aniht be, re 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 lance around him in another direction, and his startled exclamation caused the rest of the party to look in the direction tohich 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 twoith 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 glea water Two or three of the nobles who had by this tirip upon their courage, proposed an instant attack upon the monsters; but Esob felt that, for the e

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 co an attack upon them which he could not follow up