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Jurassic. It charged us as savagely as a mad bull, and one would have thought it
intended to destroy and devour the mighty U-boat, as I verily believe it did intend.
We were moving slowly up the river as the creature bore down upon us with
distended jaws. The long neck was far outstretched, and the four flippers with
which it swam were working with powerful strokes, carrying it forward at a rapid
pace. When it reached the craft's side, the jaws closed upon one of the
stanchions of the deck rail and tore it from its socket as though it had been a
toothpick stuck in putty. At this exhibition of titanic strength I think we all
simultaneously stepped backward, and Bradley drew his revolver and fired. The
bullet struck the thing in the neck, just above its body; but instead of disabling it,
merely increased its rage. Its hissing rose to a shrill scream as it raised half its
body out of water onto the sloping sides of the hull of the U-33 and endeavored to
scramble upon the deck to devour us. A dozen shots rang out as we who were
armed drew our pistols and fired at the thing; but though struck several times, it
showed no signs of succumbing and only floundered farther aboard the
submarine.
I had noticed that the girl had come on deck and was standing not far behind me,
and when I saw the danger to which we were all exposed, I turned and forced her
toward the hatch. We had not spoken for some days, and we did not speak now;
but she gave me a disdainful look, which was quite as eloquent as words, and
broke loose from my grasp. I saw I could do nothing with her unless I exerted
force, and so I turned with my back toward her that I might be in a position to
shield her from the strange reptile should it really succeed in reaching the deck;
and as I did so I saw the thing raise one flipper over the rail, dart its head forward
and with the quickness of lightning seize upon one of the boches. I ran forward,
discharging my pistol into the creature's body in an effort to force it to relinquish
its prey; but I might as profitably have shot at the sun.
Shrieking and screaming, the German was dragged from the deck, and the
moment the reptile was clear of the boat, it dived beneath the surface of the water
with its terrified prey. I think we were all more or less shaken by the frightfulness
of the tragedy--until Olson remarked that the balance of power now rested where
it belonged. Following the death of Benson we had been nine and nine--nine
Germans and nine "Allies," as we called ourselves, now there were but eight
Germans. We never counted the girl on either side, I suppose because she was a
girl, though we knew well enough now that she was ours.
And so Olson's remark helped to clear the atmosphere for the Allies at least, and
then our attention was once more directed toward the river, for around us there
had sprung up a perfect bedlam of screams and hisses and a seething caldron of
hideous reptiles, devoid of fear and filled only with hunger and with rage. They
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