BIGGLES IN THE SOUTH SEAS

by Captain W. E. Johns

VIII. MONSTERS OF THE DEEP (Pages 127 – 137)

“On each of the next two days they were up at dawn, and quickly away to the pearl-bed, making the most of the ideal weather”. Full Moon and Shell-Breaker do a lot of swimming and Ginger joins them, but when he swims down forty feet, he is menaced by a twenty-foot shark. Ginger knows he has to go up for air, past the shark. Full Moon and Shell-Breaker come down to assist him and they attack the shark with their knives, when the shark goes for Ginger. The two Polynesians return to the flying-boat. Shell-Breaker is bleeding. The shark has rubbed against him and it has skin like sandpaper. The shark has been attacked by a swordfish and the two creatures have then both made off. Biggles hears a loud splash in the water. “Hello! What’s going on?” he ejaculated. A huge shark leaps high out of the water, followed by a giant swordfish, fully twenty-five feet long. Shell-Breaker tells them to go fast. Biggles dashes to the cockpit and starts the engines, but before he can gather speed something crashes against the hull, and five feet of sword appears in the cabin. (Something crashed against the hull, and five feet of sword appeared in the cabin - is the frontispiece illustration taken from a line on page 133). It was withdrawn swiftly, leaving a hole through which water started to pour. Algy tries to stem the flow with a towel and shouts to tell Biggles to take off otherwise they will sink in a couple of minutes. The swordfish returns to the attack and Ginger fires shot after shot from his automatic at it. “I can’t get her off,” said Biggles tersely. This is due to the weight of the water and shell onboard. Biggles tells them to jettison everything, with the diving gear first as it is the heaviest. “It’s our only chance”. Sandy throws the forty-pound leaden boots over the side, then the helmet, then everything else. As Ginger goes to throw the shells out, Full Moon jumps out instead – and Shell-Breaker follows her. They can both swim back to the island. “The ‘Scud’ relieved of her excess load, rose slowly in the air, becoming more and more buoyant every moment as the water poured back through the leak and fell into the sea”. Biggles lands in shallow water and then runs the flying-boat up onto the beach. The flying-boat fills up with water as he lands, and everyone jumps out except Biggles, but he is able to get up out of the water. Biggles examines the damage. He has bought some sheet metal along with him for the trip, so they will be able to mend the hole sufficiently to get home. They have finished pearling now as all their the diving equipment has gone. The two natives swim safely in. They plan to leave tomorrow to go to Rutuoana.