The mysterious sound sent all the gulls screaming into the air, and frightened the basking walruses on the ledges three miles away.

Every seal that heard it shuddered and dived, and an old white bear, prowling along the desolate beach in search of dead fish, lifted his lean head and listened nervously.
"Only the swordfish paid no attention to that tremendous and desperate cry.

In the midst of it he made another rush, missed the calf by a handbreadth, and buried his sword to the socket in the mother's side.
"At this the old whale seemed to lose her wits.

Still clutching the terrified calf under one flipper, she stood straight on her head, so that the head and half her body were below the surface, and fell to lashing the water all around her with ponderous, deafening blows of her tail.

The huge concussions drove the swordfish from the surface, and for a minute or two he swam around her in a wide circle, about twenty feet down, trying to get the hang of these queer tactics.