icide!"

Ken felt the agony in the man, and was silent for a while before
quietly asking:

"Did they kill any more of the sealmen?"

"One. Just one. That made two of them--six of us. What the hell are
the rest of them waiting for?" Sallorsen cried. "They killed eight in
all! To our two! That's enough for them, isn't it?"

"I'm afraid not," said Ken Torrance. "Well, what then?"

"Sat down and thought. Carefully. Hit on a plan. Took one of our two
torpoons. Lashed on it steel plates, ground to sharp cutting edges.
Spent days at it. Thought torpoon could go out and cut the ropes.
Haines volunteered and we shot him and torpoon out."

"They got the torpoon?" Ken asked.

Sallorsen's arm raised in a pointing gesture. "Look."

* * * * *

Some fifty feet away from the _Peary_, on the side opposite to the one
Ken Torrance had approached, a dimly discernible object lay in the
mud. In miniature, it resembled the submarine: a cigar-shaped steel
shell, held down to the sea-bottom by ropes bound over it. Cutting
edges of steel had been fastened along its length.

"I see," said Ken slowly. "And its pilot?"

"Stayed in the torpoon thirty-six hours. Then went crazy. Put on
sea-suit and tried to get back here. Whisk--they got him. Killed and
mangled while we watched!"

"But didn't his torpoon have a nitro-shell gun? Couldn't he have
fought them off for a time?"

"Exploring submarine, this! No guns in torpoons like whalers. Gun
wouldn't help, anyway. These devils too fast. No use. No hope
anywhere...." Sallorsen sank back against the bulkhead, his lips
moving but no sound coming forth. Dully he stared ahead, through the
submarine, for a moment before uttering a cackling mockery of a laugh
and going on.

"Even after that, still hoped! Blew every tank on ship; blew out most of
her oil. Threw out everything not vital. Lightened her as much as could.
Machinery--detachable metal--fixtures--baggage--instruments--knives,
plates, cups--everything! She rose a couple of feet--no more! Put motors
at full speed--back and forth--again, again, again. Buoyancy--power--no
good. No damn good!

"And then we tried the last chance. Explosives. Had quite a store,
Nitromite, packed in cases; time-fuses to set it off. Had it for
blasting ice. I sent up a charge and blew hole in the ice overhead,
for our other torpoon.

"Nothing else left. Knew planes must be nearby, searching. Last
torpoon was to shoot up to t