“What’s the matter?” asked Tom, of the second mate, who was just passing.

“Fight between a killer and a whale,” was the reply.  “The captain has ordered the ship to lay-to so it can be watched.”

Tom made his way to the rail.  About a quarter of a mile away there could be observed a great commotion in the ocean.  Great bodies seemed to be threshing about, beating the water to foam, and, with the foam could be seen bright blood mingled.  Occasionally two jets of water, as from some small fountain, would shoot upward.

“He’s blowing hard!” exclaimed one of the sailors.  “I guess he’s about done for!”

“Which one?” asked Tom.

“The whale,” was the reply.  “The killer has the best of the big fellow,” and the sailor quickly explained how the smaller killer fish, by the peculiarity of its attack, and its great ferocity, often bested its larger antagonist.

The battle was now at its height, and Tom and the others were interested spectators.  At times neither of the big creatures could be seen, because of the smother of foam in which they rolled and threshed about.  The whale endeavored to sound, or go to the bottom, but the killer stuck to him relentlessly.

Suddenly, however, as Tom looked, the whale, by a stroke of his broad tail, momentarily stunned his antagonist.  Instantly realizing that he was free the great creature, which was about ninety feet long, darted away, swimming on the surface of the water, for he needed to get all the air possible.

Quickly acquiring momentum, the whale came on like a locomotive, spouting at intervals, the vapor from the blowholes looking not unlike steam from some submarine boat.

“He looks to be heading this way,” remarked Mr. Durban to Tom.

“He is,” agreed the young inventor, “but I guess he’ll dive before he gets here.  He only wants to get away from the killer.  Look, the other one is swimming this way, too!”

“Bless my harpoon, but he sure is!” called Mr. Damon.  “They’ll renew the fight near here.”

But he was mistaken, for the killer, after coming a little distance after the whale, suddenly turned, hesitated for a moment, and then disappeared in the depths of the ocean.

The whale, however, continued to come on, speeding through the water with powerful strokes.  There was an uneasy movement among some of the passengers.

“Suppose he strikes the ship,” suggested one woman.

“Nonsense!  He couldn’t,” said her husband.

“The old man had better get under way, just the same,” remarked a sailor near Tom, as he looked up at the bridge where the captain was standing.

The “old man,” or commander, evidently thought the same thing, for, after a glance at the oncoming leviathan, which was still headed directly for the vessel, he shoved the lever of the telegraph signal over to “full speed ahead.”

Hardly had he done so than the whale sank from sight.