* * * * *

For one awful moment Ken thought he was finished. The vision of the
hole was obscured by a twisting, whirling maelstrom of bodies, and the
torpoon quivered and shook like a living thing in agony under glancing
blows.

But then came a patch of light, a pathway of light, leading straight
up at a forty-five-degree angle to the hole in the ice above.

Sealmen and torpoon had leaped forward at the same moment. Doubtless
the creatures had not expected the shell to move so suddenly and
decisively ahead, so that when it did, those in the van swerved to
escape head-on contact.

The torpoon gained speed all too slowly for her pilot. It naturally
took time to gain full forward speed from a standing start. But she
moved, and she moved fast, and after her poured the full tide of
sealmen, now that they saw their prey running in retreat.

From somewhere ahead appeared a rope, noosed to catch the fleeing
prey. It slipped off the side. Another touched the bow, but it too was
thrown off. The torpoon's forward momentum was now great; she was
sweeping up at the full speed Ken had gone back to be able to attain.
He needed full speed! The plan would fail at the last moment without
it!

Another rope; but it was the seal-creature's last gesture. Through the
side plates of quarsteel the light grew fast; the ice was only ten
feet away; a slight directional correction brought the hole dead
ahead--and at full speed, twenty-four miles an hour, the torpoon
passed through and into the thin air of the world of light and life.

Right out of the hole, a desperate fugitive from below, she leaped,
her propeller suddenly screaming, and arched high through the air
before she dove with a rending, splintering crash onto the upper side
of the sheet ice.

And the sun of a cloudless, perfect Arctic day beat down on her; and
men were all around, eagerly reaching to open her entrance port. It
was done.

* * * * *

Kenneth Torrance, dazed, battered, hurting in every joint but
conscious, found the torpoon's port open, and felt hands reach in and
clasp him. Wearily he helped them lift him out into the thin sunlight.
Sitting down, slitting his eyes against the sudden glare, he peered
around.

Captain Sallorsen was beside him, supporting him with one hand and
pounding him on the back with the other; and there in front was the
bearded scientist, Lawson, and the rest of the men.