over to "full speed ahead."

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

"Oh, I'm so glad!" exclaimed the woman who had first spoken of the
possibility of the whale hitting the ship, "I am afraid of those
terrible creatures."

"They're as harmless as a cow, unless they get angry," said her
husband.

Slowly the great ship began to move through the water. Tom and his
friends were about to go back to their cabin, for they thought the
excitement over, when, as the young inventor turned from the rail,
he felt a vibration throughout the whole length of the steamer, as
if it had hit on a sand-bar.

Instantly there was a jangling of bells in the engine room, and the
Soudalar lost headway.

"What's the matter?" asked several persons.

They were answered a moment later, for the big whale, even though
grievously wounded in his fight with the killer, had risen not a
hundred feet away from the ship, and was coming toward it with the
speed of an express train.

"Bless my blubber!" cried Mr. Damon. "We must have hit the whale, or
it hit us under the water and now it's going to attack us!"