noticing how far out to sea they had
gone.

Suddenly the stout youth, who was fishing with an unusually heavy line
and hook, felt a hard tug on his apparatus, so powerful a tweak, in
fact, that it almost pulled him overboard. He tried to haul in, but
the resistance on the other end of his line was so great that he was
compelled to twist it about a cleat in order to avoid either letting go
or being dragged into the sea.

"What in the name of Sam Hill have you hooked?" gasped Merritt, as the
Flying Fish began to move through the water faster than even her engine
could propel her.

"I've not the least idea," remarked Tubby placidly, "but I rather think
it must be a whale."

"Whale nothing!" exclaimed Merritt scornfully and with superior wisdom.
"Whales sound, don't they?"

"Well, there's not been a sound out of this one so far," truthfully
observed Hiram.

"What kind of a sound do they make, corporal?"

"Oh, you chump," responded Merritt good-naturedly, "you've lived by the
sea all your life, and you don't know how a whale sounds. Sound means
when a whale blows, spouts, sends up a big fountain of water."

"Oh, I see," responded Hiram, much enlightened. "But see here,
Merritt, whatever we are fast to is beginning to pick up speed pretty
rapidly. Don't you think we'd better cut the line or try to haul in?"

"Haul in! Not much!" exclaimed Tubby indignantly. "We'll just hang on
till we tire him out, that's what we'll do, and then haul in."

"But we're getting a good way out from shore," objected Hiram, who,
however much at home he was at the key of a wireless apparatus, had no
great relish for blue water in a small motor boat.

"Don't you worry, sonny," put in Merritt patronizingly. "We'll be all
right. My, that was a plunge!"

As he spoke the bow of the Flying Fish dipped till she shipped a few
gallons of green water.

"I'll pay out some more line," said the unperturbed Tubby. "I guess
whatever we're onto begins to believe that he has swallowed something
pretty indigestible."

Faster and faster the Flying Fish began to cut through the sea. The
water sprayed out from both sides of her cutwater in a steady stream.

"She's doing as well as she did the day of the race," said Merritt,
with a laugh, gazing at Hiram's rather pale face. The wireless youth
was casting longing glances at the shore.

"Well, I wish Mr. Whale, or whatever he is, would come up and let us
have a look at him!" exclaimed Tubby s