Every now and then she would shut her jaws and give
two or three great gulps, and her little eyes, away back at the base of
her skull, would almost twinkle with satisfaction.
"But, as it appeared, she was not the only one that liked shrimps. The
air was full of wings and screams, where gulls, gannets, and skuas
swooped and splashed, quarrelling because they got in one another's way
at the feast. Also, here and there a heavy, sucking swirl on the
smooth slope of a wave would show where some very big fish was taking
toll of the pinky swarms. The whale kept her eye on these ponderous
swirls with a certain amount of suspicion, though not really
anticipating any danger here.
"She was just about coming to the conclusion that one can have enough,
even of shrimps, when, glancing downwards, she caught sight of a long,
slender, deadly-looking shape slanting up toward her through a space of
clear water between the armies of the shrimps. She knew that grim
shape all too well, and it was darting straight at her baby, its
terrible sword standing out keen and straight from its pointed snout.
"In spite of her immense bulk and apparently clumsy form, the whale was
capable of marvelously quick action.
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