went on deck with a rifle, twenty of which were aboard the U-33. At
sight of me a huge thing charged and climbed to the deck. I retreated
to the top of the conning-tower, and when it had raised its mighty bulk
to the level of the little deck on which I stood, I let it have a
bullet right between the eyes.

The thing stopped then and looked at me a moment as much as to say:
"Why this thing has a stinger! I must be careful." And then it reached
out its long neck and opened its mighty jaws and grabbed for me; but I
wasn't there. I had tumbled backward into the tower, and I mighty near
killed myself doing it. When I glanced up, that little head on the end
of its long neck was coming straight down on top of me, and once more I
tumbled into greater safety, sprawling upon the floor of the centrale.

Olson was looking up, and seeing what was poking about in the tower,
ran for an ax; nor did he hesitate a moment when he returned with one,
but sprang up the ladder and commenced chopping away at that hideous
face. The thing didn't have sufficient brainpan to entertain more than
a single idea at once. Though chopped and hacked, and with a bullethole
between its eyes, it still persisted madly in its attempt to get inside
the tower and devour Olson, though its body was many times the diameter
of the hatch; nor did it cease its efforts until after Olson had
succeeded in decapitating it. Then the two men went on deck through
the main hatch, and while one kept watch, the other cut a hind quarter
off Plesiosaurus Olsoni, as Bradley dubbed the thing. Meantime Olson
cut off the long neck, saying that it would make fine soup. By the
time we had cleared away the blood and refuse in the tower, the cook
had juicy steaks and a steaming broth upon the electric stove, and the
aroma arising from P. Olsoni filled us an with a hitherto unfelt
admiration for him and all his kind.

Chapter 5

The steaks we had that night, and they were fine; and the following
morning we tasted the broth. It seemed odd to be eating a creature
that should, by all the laws of paleontology, have been extinct for
several million years. It gave one a feeling of newness that was
almost embarrassing, although it didn't seem to embarrass our
appetites. Olson ate until I thought he would burst.

The girl ate with us that night at the little officers' mess just back
of the torpedo compartment. The narrow table was unfolded; the four
stools were set out; and