Part 33 (1/2)
”Let us hope so.”
They all gathered in the cabin. The professor explained the nature of the creatures, as far as he knew them from what he had read or heard. He pointed out, through the gla.s.s windows, over which the suckers were still clinging, how they maintained their grip, by exhausting, through their big mouths, the air between their saucer-like surfaces and the s.h.i.+p to which they were clinging.
”Can't we go out and fight 'em?” asked Andy, who was always ready to use a gun.
”I doubt if we could get out,” replied the professor. ”Though we can not see them, I believe the creatures cover every part of the s.h.i.+p from stem to stern. We could never open the door of the diving chamber with that terrible sucker covering the iron portal.”
”Maybe if we wait long enough a lot of sharks will come along and eat 'em up,” put in Jack.
”I am afraid sharks will not come to these frozen waters,” said the professor. ”They like a warm climate.”
”And you don't think it would be feasible to use dynamite,” asked Mark.
”We can't get out to place it where it would blow up the fish and not us,” answered Mr. Henderson. ”If we could it might serve.”
A silence fell on the group. They were in sore straits and there seemed no hope of rescue. The big disk-like bodies that covered the windows did not move, but remained there, staring with horrible persistency into the interior of the s.h.i.+p.
CHAPTER XXVI
LAND UNDER ICE
Suddenly the craft began to move. Slowly at first, then, with more speed it forged ahead through the water.
”Are we free?” asked Andy, starting up.
”Who started the machinery?” demanded the professor.
”No one,” replied Jack. ”We are all here. There is no one in the engine room.”
”But we are moving,” said Mark.
”It's dem sucker-fis.h.!.+” exclaimed Was.h.i.+ngton. ”Dey is takin' us off to der dens an' dere we'll all be eat up!”
”I'm afraid part of it is true,” said Mr. Henderson. ”The creatures are certainly making off with us. How powerful they must be!”
”Will dey take us to a cave?” faltered Was.h.i.+ngton. ”Will dey eat us up?”
”I don't think they'll eat us up,” spoke the inventor. ”It would defy even their powerful sucking apparatus to bore through the steel sides of the _Porpoise_. What I am afraid of is that they may move us to some hidden depth where we will be caught under the rocks or in the ice, and so lose what little chance there is of getting free.”
”And the worst of it is we can't do a thing to help ourselves!”
exclaimed Andy. ”This is the worst game I was ever up against!”
The adventurers were indeed helpless. They could not get out of their s.h.i.+p to attack the monsters, even had they dared to. Their engine, powerful as it was, had proved no match for the creatures, and now they were being carried away, s.h.i.+p and all, to some unknown place.
The s.h.i.+p did not go through the water fast. Though the suckers seemed to be working in union their bodies were too unwieldly, and the s.h.i.+p so large, that their pace was slow. Nevertheless they kept steadily on.
Several times, in their desperation, the adventurers tried the force of the big screw against that of the suckers. It was of no avail. Neither was the device of emptying the tanks, and trying to force the craft up as far as the roof of ice would permit it to go.