But then came the thought of moving the diving bell into the fish's
path.
He grabbed two of the levers and pushed them down, violently.
Acting under the impetus thus given, the diving bell made a stride
forward, directly in the path of the Devil's Needle.
Crash!
Full against the steel frame of the bell came the sword-like spear of
the fish.
Another crack followed, as the spear was broken off close to the
creature's snout.
The great shock stunned the Devil's Needle and it turned over on its
side and sank slowly to the ocean's bottom.
Realizing that something was wrong, Amos Fearless turned, just in time
to witness the breaking off of the bony spear.
He started for the diving bell, then of a sudden changed his plan of
action.
One of the diving bell's steel claws lay close to the Devil's Needle,
and this he raised up and placed over the monster.
Dave, inside of the bell, understood, made the lever work, and
immediately the claw fastened itself around the body of the
half-stunned fish.
Then Amos Fearless picked up the broken-off sword spear and re-entered
the bell.
In a moment more the signal was given to rise, and slowly the diving
bell went up to the surface of the ocean, dragging the bodies of the
two deep-sea monsters with it.
"A glorious find!" cried Captain Broadbeam, when the two monsters were
hoisted on board of the _Swallow_.
"Yes, but we don't want to make another such find under the same
circumstances," answered Amos Fearless. And then he related the
particulars of the adventure on the bottom of the ocean.
There were two scientists on board of the ship and they went to work at
once to prepare the bodies of the two fish which had been caught.
"That sword spear can be fastened on again," said one of the learned
gentlemen. "And then the specimen will be practically perfect."
"Folks at home ought to see them alive," said Dave. "I never saw such a
horrible sight in my life!"
"These fish could not live in ordinary water," was the answer. "See,
the breathing apparatus on each is already bursting. They can only live
at a depth of half a mile or more. If one tried to reach the surface by
swimming upward, it would only be committing suicide."
"I don't quite understand the reason for that, sir."
"It is simple, my lad. You know the air around us presses us on every
inch of our bodies, and we are built to resist that pressure. An
ordinary fish is built to resist the pressure of ordinary water. Such
a fish as the Sea Devil is built to resist the pressure of hundreds
of pounds to the square inch, and consequently when it is brought up,
the pressure inside is too great for the pressure outside, and that
destroys the breathing power of the marine animal," concluded the
learned man.
By evening the _Swallow_ was on her way westward once more and the
scientific men had the specimens almost ready to be placed in huge
tanks of alcohol.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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