"He's still fast to us.

The line's as tight as a fiddle string." He was standing up as he spoke, and as the Flying Fish gave a sudden, crazy jerk forward, he was almost thrown overboard.

In fact, he would have toppled into the sea if Merritt had not bounded forward and grabbed the fleshy lad just as he was losing his balance.
"We're off again!" exclaimed Hiram, as the Flying Fish once more began to move through the water.
But now the creature that had seized Tubby's big hook started to move in circles.

Round and round the Flying Fish was towed in dizzy swings that made the heads of her young occupants swim.
"Start the engine on the reverse, and see if that will do any good," said Tubby, bending anxiously over his line.
Merritt brought the reverse gear to "neutral," and then started it up, gradually bringing back the lever governing the reversing wheel till the Flying Fish was going second speed astern, and finally at her full gait backward.
The tug thus exercised seemed to have no effect on the monster that had caught Tubby's bait, however.

With the exception that the speed was diminished a trifle, the Flying Fish was still powerless to shake off her opponent.
Suddenly, and without the slightest warning, a huge, shiny, wet body shot out of the water almost directly in front of the amazed and startled boys, and settled back with a mighty splash that sent the spray flying in a salt-water shower bath over their heads.
"Whatever was it ?" gasped Hiram in awed tones.
"A shark," replied Merritt, "and a whopper, too.