From behind a nearby iceberg, a mammoth whale had reared its enormous head and was charging directly toward them!
CHAPTER 21
A HAIRBREADTH ESCAPE
AS THE WHALE bore down on them, Tom opened the throttle wide, shooting the plane across the choppy gray-green waters of the bay.
In order to get close to the seals, Tom had maneuvered into an area littered with drift ice. Now his course was blocked by numerous floating white chunks.
Kicking the rudder hard, the inventor veered to the left and headed for open water, as Dr. Faber cried out:
“It’s a blue whale-the biggest kind there is!” Excitedly he pulled out his pen and notebook and started writing.
Just at that moment, the whale spouted, then plunged below the surface and disappeared.
The plane was skimming along, nearing open warn A HAIRBREADTH ESCAPE 175
ter now, with a clear path ahead for a take-off. A stiff breeze was whipping the waves into whitecaps.
Suddenly, with a loud splash, the whale surfaced again, fifty feet directly ahead, rearing and arcing its body.
Tom gasped, “It must be a hundred feet long!”
“And weigh more than a hundred tons!” added Dr. Faber, scribbling notes furiously.
Tom gunned the engines to pick up speed for the take-off. Would they make it, or hit the whale? Tom pulled back on the stick. The pontoons cleared the water and the craft was air-borne! They had missed the whale’s back by a scant three feet!
Not until they were soaring safely above the bay did the two explorers exchange glances and let out deep sighs of relief.
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