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At all events something had been communicated that produced a sudden change in the tactics of the zygaena.
It was the hideous hammer-headed shark, the dreaded zygaena of the Celebes Sea.
As the zygaena was gliding onward, and just as its rough pectoral passed within an inch of his nose, he suddenly returned the knife between his teeth, and, simultaneously using both hands and limbs, he sprang upward in the waiter, and, with a vigorous effort, launched himself on its back!
At the same instant Snowball sputtered out some very similar orders; but being sadly out of breath from his exertions in the long-continued struggle with the zygaena, what proceeded from his mouth less resembled words than the snorting of a porpoise; and was, in truth, altogether unintelligible. Little William needed no instructions, neither to hear nor understand them.
It seemed surprising that the zygaena could endure them, but its wonderful vitality is well-known the terrific gashes which Nub inflicted in no way impeding its rapid progress. At first it seemed to be coming towards the mate and Alice; and though it would not have been able to bite them, it might have inflicted a blow which would have stunned them both.
Of course, the sailor, encumbered as he was by the half-lifeless form of the girl, would stand but little chance of making a successful defence against a shark, more especially such a monster as the zygaena; and it was the knowledge of this that had summoned Snowball to the rescue.
He saw, moreover, it was the same he and little Lalee had so late been contemplating in security, the dreaded zygaena: for through the translucent water he could distinguish its hammer-shaped head, and lurid eyes gleaming out from their protuberant sockets, hideous to behold! The boy now became spectator, sole spectator, of a scene of thrilling, even terrible interest.
No wonder, therefore, that the victims which the zygaena had selected for its attack remained unconscious of its approach; and it was only on seeing Snowball spring out from the Catamaran, and swim towards him, that the sailor suspected the proximity of a shark.
It was this thought that was causing him anxiety, amounting almost to anguish, that caused him to plunge wildly through the water, to utter loud cries, and make other noisy demonstrations, with a view of distracting the attention of the zygaena from the victims it had fore-chosen, and drawing its attack upon himself. His shouts and gesticulations proved equally unavailing.
He knew that the zygaena, like others of its congeners, in seizing an object, requires to have that object under it; otherwise, it is compelled to turn upon its back or side, just in proportion as the prey it would seize lies high or low in the water.
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