The helmsrat was trying to shout something but Arthur couldn’t hear him. The parrot shriek was so loud and so high-pitched that it actually hurt. He could feel it making his cheekbones ache.
Water touched Arthur’s feet. He yelped and pulled his legs up. There was at least a foot of water in the compartment and it looked like it was rising. So it hadn’t worked, and they were all going to be crushed and drowned — The screech stopped. Hesitantly, Arthur pulled one finger out of his ear, just enough to hear a confused babble of voices that included the helmsrat shrieking, all calm gone.
‘One hundred fathoms and rising! She’s going up! She’s going up!’
Whether it was in response to the parrot shriek or not, Drowned Wednesday rose up far faster than she’d sunk. Not that either motion had been very significant for her, Arthur thought. A bit like him bobbing his head down an inch.
‘Ten fathoms and shallowing! Six fathoms! Sea level! We’re out of the water. We’re right out of the water.’
Everyone stared at the crystal globe. All the water was running out of the hole they were in, to reveal the obstruction as a barnacle-encrusted wall of copper-sheathed timber.
‘She must be lifting her head up,’ said Longtayle. ‘That’ll make things easier.’
He lifted the voice-pipe.
‘Cox’n, prepare a diving party for outside work. Four rats with axes. Damage control, get all pumps going.’
‘Aye, aye!’
Arthur was watching the crystal globe carefully, so he was the first to notice the water streaming back from inside the whale. At the same time the submersible shook and tilted down at the stern, the water still in the bridge sloshing around everyone’s ankles.
‘We’re in the sea again. Nine fathoms!’ called the helmsrat. ‘But the current has reversed. It’s coming out of her now, at six knots.’
‘Belay that diving party!’ called Longtayle. ‘Full back both engines!’
The vibration of the engines had just begun when there was suddenly a much bigger and more dramatic vibration, a shock wave that shook the whole submersible with a sound like a china cabinet falling over. Arthur held his hands against his ears as he felt his stomach flip-flop and the blood rush to his head.
‘What was that?’
‘Jaw clash,’ said Longtayle. ‘Guess she really didn’t like that parrot noise. It might help us get free.’
‘Or shake us to bits,’ said Suzy cheerfully.
The shock wave came three more times, each more violently than the last. Arthur was very glad to be sitting down and belted in, as even so he was thrown about in his chair. The teapot and cups were long since smashed to pieces and they combined with various other bits and pieces to fly dangerously around the bridge. Arthur was cut slightly across the cheek before he covered his face with his arms.
‘We’re backing free!’
Arthur stared at the crystal globe. The wooden wall was receding as the submersible backed out. All the bits of flotsam were still flowing back out of Drowned Wednesday, rather more slowly than they’d streamed in, so it seemed she had stopped moving and lowered her mouth.
‘Tail-eye!’
The view changed to show the open sea behind them.
‘If she’ll just stay still long enough for us to back right out and go through another hole. . .’ muttered Longtayle. ‘All we need is a minute. One minute . . .’
No one spoke as they all watched the tail-eye view. It slowly changed, the debris floating more freely and the white walls of bone being left behind.
‘Snout-eye.’
The globe flashed and there was the immense wall of white bone ahead of them, riddled with holes.
‘Do you want to pick a hole, Lord Arthur?’ asked Longtayle as they continued to back through the sea.
‘No! Just aim for one!’
‘Port thirty and take her up,’ ordered Longtayle.
The submarine rattled and groaned as the engines returned to forward thrust. Ever so slowly the Balaena began to move towards a new hole. Then there was a strange rush of speed, and both white walls and dark hole rushed towards the submersible.
‘She’s moving forward again!’
‘Steady helm, straight at that hole!’
‘Let’s hope this one’s not bunged up,’ said Suzy.
‘The currents would clean them out,’ said Arthur distractedly. He was trying to watch the crystal globe. They were lined up okay for the new tunnel, but it would only take a slight shift for them to miss it. ‘It must have been a big ship to get stuck. We were just unlucky to hit that one.’
‘But very fortunate to come back out again,’ said Doctor Scamandros nervously.