f
steel squarely into the quarsteel pane of the watertight door, then
rebounded, and fell to the deck.

"My God!" gasped Sallorsen. But Ken wasted no words then. He pressed
closer to the quarsteel and examined it minutely. The substance showed
no visible effect, but the action of the sealmen destroyed whatever
hope he had felt.

The sealmen had swerved aside at the last minute; and now, picking up
the torpoon again and guiding it back to the other end of the
compartment, they hurled it once more with a resounding crash into the
quarsteel pane.

"How long will it last under that?" Ken asked tersely.

Obviously, Sallorsen's wits were muddled at this turn. He remained
gaping at the creatures and at the torpoon, now turned against its
mother submarine. Ken repeated the question.

"How long? Who knows? It's as strong as steel, but--there's the
pressure--and those blows hit one spot. Not--long."

* * * * *

Capping his words, there re-echoed again the loud crash of the
torpoon's on the quarsteel. The sealmen were working in quick routine
now; back and quickly forward, and then the crash and the
reverberation; and again and again....

The ominous crash and ringing echoes regularly repeated, seemed to
disorganise Ken's mind as he looked vainly for something with which to
brace the door. Nothing unattached was left--nothing! He ran and
examined the quarsteel pane again, and this time his brain heated in
alarm. A thin line had shot through the quarsteel--the beginning of a
crack.

"Back!" Ken shouted to the still staring Sallorsen. "Back to the third
compartment. This door's going!"

"Yes," Sallorsen mumbled. "It'll go. So will the others. They'll smash
them all. And when this is flooded--no hope of running the submarine
again. Controls in here."

"That's too damned bad!" Ken said roughly. "Are there any sea-suits,
food, supplies in here?"

"Only food. In those lockers."

"I'll take it. Get into that third compartment--hear me?" ordered
Kenneth Torrance. "And have its door ready to close!"

He shoved Sallorsen away, opened the indicated lockers and piled his
arms with the tins revealed. He had time for no more than one load. He
jumped back into the third compartment of the _Peary_ just as a
splintering crash sounded from behind. The door between was swung
closed and locked just as the one being battered crashed inward.

Turning, Ken saw that the torpoon had cracked through the w