Show 1 1 u tt t 1 t tf t ill illy p f y l Vi ViI vr I y li fi ns 0 E believed cl eed not in i the futility of this worldly world HI I eXIstence nor In in Its troubles For him the tife HI was justified by immediate results md and as for fo trouble he sought it at all points His two fathoms fathom of muscular length slid through the sea with his hi weapon always ready always unsheathed and itt its immense strength and deadly sharpness warranted hi his faith bith in his ability to prove himself upon all or of trespassers He was what the fishermen termed a It or property properly speaking swordfish a giant of the mackerel tribe His weapon was four feet long four inches wide It at the hilt or where it joined his head and ind it exactly like an armed warriors blade like the mailed fighters weapon of the land and The point was not quite as sharp as that of the human fighters but it was very tough and keen enough to penetrate anything of flesh and blood with the greatest of case He could dr c it four feet deep into the belly of a whale without exerting half his strength and it made a ghastly ghast wound With his six hundred pounds of flesh and bone behind it flying through the water at the rate of twenty miles an hour he could drive that sword through a ships a plank The flat blade had sharp edges and he could strike sideways a terrific chopping blow which would p put t a smaller denizen of the sea beyond the cares of He always came upon the coa coast t at t the e beginning of spring striking in along the land wHere the colossal wall falls a sheer mile or more into deep p ocean bed a at afew t few miles to the southward of the Hatteras Shoals Nine miles below the Diamond Shoals Lightship the N t sand sandy bottom sinks quickly to a thousand fathoms or P sP s more and below in the bed bcd of the Atlantic the mighty wall is swept by the tepid waters of the Gulf or Florida Stream At the beginning of summer the swordfish came in the loud land as was his custom He was a 0 fighter a t follower of unending strife a knight who knew no t surfeit of battle as tong long as he had strength to follow f and strike his foe The wounds he inflicted he took not r at all into consideration and often wantonly struck and andi slashed frantically into a peaceable school of fish for the i I pure love loe of the slaughter The first denizen of the deep water who claimed his hist t attention was a giant ray or This monster r r weighing a full fuH ton or more and measuring fully fulty fifteen feet across the tips of his wings or flukes came sliding along the edge of the shoal heading hending up front the south southward ward w where he had spent the cold weather The quiet quid sea ea was much to his liking and he sought the sunshine of the surface It warmed him and he flung his whole e bulk skyward breaching clear and falling back into the water waler with a roar like a s small cannon as his flat flukes struck solid upon the surface The joy of life was in him Out upon the smooth se sea lay la the Knight of the Bank BanI basking in the bright sunshine The sudden smash of r the he great body falling into the wt water r attract attracted d his alien atten attention tion It seemed like a challenge lie He gave a quick wins swing to his tail and in a i moment his high dorsal dor r l fin fm thin and sharp and curved backward was cutting cUlling the water waler me like a knife shearing its way toward the intruder The monstrous es noticed a form ap approaching In an instant it took the shape of a long thin object with a long Jong pointed weapon held and andas as he to meet k it he opened his huge jaws for or a savage bite for he knew at once that lie he was WIlS to meet m an attack which would be no slight fracas no small scrimmage scrim mage mase and a breakaway The Knight of the Shoal took in the immense bulk md and put on more power He had ad found a foe of no mean proportions Here waS no runaway fish unable to defend itself but it a mighty might antagonist I who would give him something to do Tic lIe saw the e tJ giant mouth opening before him and itS as lic he so he swung downward gracefully swerving into a circle with an arc of sonic some twenty fathoms alid as lie he reached the lowermost i curve oi of the dive dic h he i p cd up to a mighty might rush and came darting dartin toward thc hur acc like a pro the dark bulk of the s sei devil almost almot directly above Quick as thought the devil slewed an and started for the sm sand below but ut quicker yet ct came the swordfish With a furious rush he drove the sword through the JOC the point com coining ng out a full three feet fed in his ilia b back k but the monster ha enough to avoid upon a vital ital part and a i the blade pierced only the thick solid mass of flesh of hii hi aide si e flaky Hi broad blood dyed the SN sea and streamed away like i a jet of from the wound 3 as both ilow tore along sick sid h by elide cide It was a bad stroke for the knight for Cor he h hc had c I 1 driven his word sword so fiercely that thit he hut had much trouble to withdraw it and all the time the mighty devil deil was heading for the shoals hoping to gain th the sand By the time he had worked the weapon free the knight found himself in less than a dozen fathoms of water and the was scuttling along the bottom hollom in a circle trying to come to close quarters with his assailant whom he was dragging along and unable to reach In Ina a l moment the devil eil turned He felt the freeing of the sword and with jaws and threshing flukes he came at the knight For a moment it looked as though the warrior would get it pretty prelly badly for he was close upon the thc bottom and the devil deil was upon him before lie he had time to give gie himself sufficient headway to drive his sword home To turn to flee would be fatal The jaws would seize him and once held he would have hae little opportunity to get away for the devil would never neer relax his hold while he lived He acted with a sudden resolve md and drove with all his power right under the huge bulk gouging into the sand and forcing his Wl between the mass of devoured their fellows fellow that lay either dead or badly hadly wounded in the shoal A great pelagic shark shari a l huge fellow with triangular teeth came in along the edge of the Gulf Stream and 00 for a time disputed the right to infest the shoals but the knight of the bank fought him to a finish piercing him several times through the small part of the bod body and only de desisted after the huge fellow ellow drove away full speed to the eastward at a rite rate the knight could not keep up with rith and use his weapon with telling felling effect Ile He left him hima a badly cutup shark about fifty y miles out in the stream and came slowly back to his position near the e edge ge orthe or of the great ocean wall One da day it a school of to thed whales came in close to the lightship Thc of the blackfish sh fam family it ily strong vigorous md and remarkably active Not more than thirl thirty feet in length the they swam along with hori horizontal flukes and high dorsal fins like giant porpoises The Knight of time the Outer Bank lay Jay waiting for l ioe that day clay and as the monsters carne came swimming in upon the shoal disporting themselves plunging and r t u 4 a w y C y A J t iq r i i if f Q f fr r l al j I T w g J jr M Mf x f fr frt t yg t i y J J N r fly at atS t S hAi hAij s x ey f l 1 V S h 1 j y r J TILE rH ST iP rH 01 DEEP WHO CL CLAIMED I lEJ imis TIO WAS 5 A m G tT T kAY H Y or ETiL the monster and lOd th time ground The carried along by his own momentum drove over the knight so 0 quickly that he led to get hi his grip eM t upon the end of the c which is teeth In less Ices than ten seconds the knight was hurling himself headlong g again upon the monster his sword pointing strai straight ht at the thc c center of the boo body Before the thc could swing about the weapon pierced pierc d him going clean through his body Ile He grabbed the kniGht savagely bit and tore tor him but his failing strength en em enabled the swordfish to back away Another and another stab was Va delivered and son onn the great bulk sank supine upon th the sail a vast macs o of flesh The Knight o of the Outer Sh Shoal l I wh aw away y r I He was ws ba badly dl y cut an Jd d somewhat tir tired from the fracas but he rose rOe to the surface r ready dy for fot anything or an anone any anyone one who till still h had rJ the hardihood to dispute the posses inn Ginn of the Bank During the ft wing week he h fell feU in with vast ast schools of bluefish which he e chased pd and cI unmercifully killing them Item hy by the hundred r d and o once ce he came in con contact tact with a 1 school of sand sharks tint that came slinking over Of the bank He pierced fifteen of thc these e monsters d dare te tc rc rest t for or the time b being ing but the scavengers came back durin during the thc noun hours of darkness ar d like so many sni ll his fierce soul felt th tt I is lIld It at la last t meet t ii 11 worthy of his deadly He was tot ot mistaken The whales s were of the pred predator red ator breed hungry cannibals that hesitated not to lo cat their heir own l kind nd whenever opportunity offered did the hesitate to offer combat to any liing in the shape of anima of 01 fish that happened in their path save only the great grat cachalot or sperm wha whale whose r jaw and deadly flukes they ther found beyond their thir power There were six worthies in the school cho l and they rante Ilme gambol gamboling ing il the shoal nor regarded with wilh any concern the cog wc weapon pon which la roi hoisted ted at them j just LIst beneath tits the surface J The knight not for or challen challenge e but bul bore down upon them with a rush hi his weapon aimed for the fort moSt t muster Quid Quick as 1 li tilt the whale plunged but bill not quick enough leo to avoid the stroke c Tile sword pierced him through the lungs and hea heart t md and he came Capte weakly to the surface Mowing a bloody spray pry from his spiracle The h backed clear as lie he did so the next in line linc of the 11 dohrl zt t tent him lie drove droe his weapon full cored c at the bt bit it struck strud only a glancing blow biow cutting a igl gash h five lon long c and fully six c in the side h e 1 of the Then his Ii momentum c ried him right rigl into the midst 0 of the rest who flung t him with a vigor vigar an and velocity that taxed his powers to the utmost One animal sc seized zed him just for fol forward ward of hi his dorsal fin and set et his pointed teeth deep i ithe I Ithe the flesh esh He struggled frantically to get dear but he only did so 50 after the teeth ceth tore away the piece of him hit they ther held for the whale would not relax its grip It 1 was a grisly wound an and l i k warmed the fighters he hear rt He felt fell the pain and swung about striking and cutting with hi his sword in a perfect fury lie He drove his weapon again asnin and again into the bed of one and 2nd managed to t back clear The whale rose to the surface and robe on his side swimming feebly Another met the point of c the weapon with his luke fluke and it C cat the tendon so t thin lat the tin fin was useless He drifted out oi of the conflict while th the two remaining animals stood their ground only IonS ion enough to get a 1 taste of the deadly point before plum plunging pluming ing away to seaward leaving a thin smoky track in the blue water with the blood from their wounds Then thc th knight used his weapon on the wounded and their suf were at In an end He was still master of the tit shoal During the next week or two he la lay most of the time tim quietly upon the surface in the sunshine for his wound woun was severe A week of heavy easterly weather followed and he kept off the land following the e edge ge of the great grea I wall and seldom coming to the surface He was be becoming beI coming restless and the desire to move farther on was j l I 1 taking possession oi of his faculties Then one day it fell fell calm again and he stood in for the lightship As the da day wore on he became aware of two swordfish approaching from the eastward The pair came cune slowly in upon the he bank One was a female of good and the other her corn com companion panion was a powerful fellow aslar as lar e c as himself Something within him caused a ri towar 1 the big fi fish and he began to lo for a fracas The Th female he felt f lt drawn to and the more l he e felt this lh the greater was teas his anger to toward ard the big biS fell fellows He woul not attack the female in fact all the ferocity he would usually have expended upon two he now con concentrated concentrated upon the one the big male who conic came along unconcernedly as though lie he had rights the knight bound to respect Instead however oi of making a dirge direct assault without warning he swam slowly lowly towar toward the th pair and met them on the edge of the blue water Hi would inspect the couple and nd as he did so his spleen at atthe a athe the stranger became more mor and more pronounced never before had he felt such a dislike such a hats hatred for a foe He circled around the pair and jabbed the big one ruthlessly with the point of his sword just jus enough to prick him and incite Then h he gave a great sweep swung around jn in a great circle and anc lay waiting head on for the fray which the stranger strange now saw was forthcoming The big fellow was at the scratch from the knights weapon and ancl lost nc no time lini in preliminaries He was a fighter a savage figl fighter ter anelhe and he neither asked nor sought for a reason for the tf at fair It waS sufficient for hint him that he had be been n while thile in pea Peaceful pursuit of happiness with his female companion an and the entire fierceness of his disposition J now w flared up at the stranger who seemed se med to dispute his right to live For an instant the monsters lay laj facing each other upon the calm sea Then as if starting at the signal of a her herald ld the fighters plunged forward full ull speed sp ed edth th their ir swords aimed at each cach other and tn every muscle anti and tendon strained to the utmost to drive them ahead iii the mish mighty charge The two swordsmen or rather swordfish met point to po point sit but such was the velocity of their charge that thc they ww went cot rushing past each other their weapons striking ing each other farl fairly upon their heads the long Jong tapering noses no es turning time he blows and mcl causing the points to to glance off But the sharp etl edges es cut deeply and m each bore a nasty Turning at al once under full head headway headway way they carne came again asai 1 at e each other and again their pointed heads made the t e strokes slide into ragGed cuts Then before the they could gather way enough to get clear the they jabbed md and struck t ruck at clo close e quarters stabbing and cutting in tn an amazing manner mannel The sea was a 1 foaming about them dyed with their blood the whiteness of the su suds s taking on that deep purpling look which tells of the quantity of red mixed with it it Their struggle W so rapid so vigorous and so sustained that the eye ec not follow their movements Oily On ya a whirling of broken water with here and m l there a flash of their bodies showing through told of the b battle taking place In in the thesel sea sel Now Nosy and then a I sword rose in time the air to fall again Once the Knight of the Shoal flung himself clear of the theCa sea Ca to fall sword downward toward the back of his enemy but the stranger was owns too quick and sprang from under just in time to prevent being transfixed d The rhe I If f female male la by upon th the sea cea watching the th outcome mc of the affair Ji md and appeared little concerned as was wasa 1 a ro the victor ictor she belonged aid ind the sur sura rival a I of the fittest fiu ct seemed to her choice in natural Pith him she ohe |