Frank and Andy Afloat | Page 4

late. On came the monster of the deep, his great head
throwing up a huge wave in front of him. Andy was rowing as hard as
was his brother until he suddenly jumped his left oar out of the oarlock.
In another moment it had gone overboard.
This seemed to attract the attention of the whale to the skiff of the
younger lad. The monster might have thought that the occupant of the
boat was trying to hurl a harpoon.
Suddenly changing his course, the leviathan, which had been headed
for Frank's craft, now turned toward Andy's.
"Look out!" frantically shouted the older lad.
"I can't! He's got me!" screamed Andy.
The next instant there was a splintering, crashing and rending of wood.
A shower of spray flew high in the air. Frank's boat rocked on the
heavy swell caused by the flukes of the whale, as they went deep into
the water after delivering a glancing blow upon the unfortunate Andy's
skiff.
Frank had a momentary glance of his brother's boat, with one side
smashed down to the water's edge. He saw the green sea pouring in,
and he saw Andy standing up, ready to leap overboard. He saw the
maddened monster sheering off out to sea again, and then Frank cried:
"I'm coming, Andy! I'm coming! I'll save you! Hold on to your boat!
Don't jump!"
The whale disappeared in a smother of foam, as Frank, with desperate
energy, bent to his oars and swung his boat in the direction of the
sinking one containing his brother.
CHAPTER II

THE WRECKED MOTOR BOAT
"Hold on, Andy! Hold on! You'll float for a while yet!" called Frank,
while he threw all his strength upon the oars in the endeavor to reach
his brother. He cast anxious eyes about, fearing a return of the whale,
but there was no sign of the big creature.
"All right--take your time!" called Andy. "I can keep afloat for quite a
while yet. Maybe I won't sink after all."
"I'm not taking any chances," returned Frank, and then he swung his
craft up alongside that of his brother. As Andy had said, his skiff was in
pretty good condition. This was due to two causes. The blow of the
whale's tail had been a glancing one, and the skiff had an unusually
high freeboard, so that though it was splintered down to the water edge,
not much of the sea had entered.
"I believe she'll float when I'm out of it so she'll ride higher," declared
the younger lad. "Take me into your boat, and maybe we can tow mine
in and fix it up. It's too good to lose."
"That's right. Wow! But you had a narrow escape!" and Frank looked
very grave as he assisted his brother into the undamaged craft. "I
thought it was all up with you."
"So did I, when I saw that beast coming for me. But he sheered off just
in time. Then I felt sure my boat would fill and sink in an instant, when
I saw the water pouring in, after he swiped me, so I got ready to jump. I
didn't want to be carried down with it."
"That's right. Say, that's cut through as clean as if done with a knife,"
and Frank looked at the slash in the side of his brother's boat. It was
indeed a sharp cut, and showed with what awful force the tail of the
monster must have descended.
"As much water came pouring in over the side as there did through the
hole," went on Andy. "That's what gave me a scare. But did you see the
harpoon in that whale?"

"No, was there one?"
"Sure as you're a foot high. There was a short piece of line fast to it,
and the whale had a big hole in his side. He's been wounded, probably
by a steamer's propeller after he was harpooned up north, or else that's
the wound of a bomb gun. I could see it quite plainly."
"Yes, you had a nearer view than I'd want," observed Frank, as he made
fast Andy's boat to the stern of his own. As the younger lad had said,
his skiff, now that it was higher in the water, because his weight was
out of it, took in very little of the sea.
"I guess we can tow it if we bail out," observed Frank. "Are you very
wet?"
"Not much--only up to my knees. I was just going to jump in and swim
for it when you called to me. Well, here goes for bailing."
"Yes, and if you shift that anchor back to the stern it will raise the bow,
and the hole will be so much more out of water. It'll row easier, too."
"Right you