Syd Belton

"Look out!" he shouted, and there was a rush for the rock, where as soon as they were on safely the men began to roar with laughter.

"Beg pardon, sir," said Rogers, touching his hat, as he stood axe in hand; "but seeing as how he tried to eat me, oughtn't we to try and eat he?"

The "he" pointed to was a long, lean, hungry-looking shark which had been cruising about the side of the vessel, whose bulwarks had all been ripped off and deck torn up, so that she floated now like a huge tub whose centre was crossed by broad beams. So open was the vessel that it had needed very little effort on the part of a shark to make a rush, glide in over the ragged side, and then begin floundering about in the water, and over and under the beams which had supported the deck.

"I don't know about eating him, Roy," said Syd; "but as I'm captain I pa.s.s sentence of death on the brute." Then to the men--"How can you tackle the wretch?"

"Oh, we'll soon tackle him, sir," said Rogers; "eh, messmets?"

There was a growl of a.s.sent at this, and the men looked at their young leader full of expectancy.

"Well," he said, "be careful. What do you mean to do?"

"Seems to me, sir," said the man, "as the best thing to do would be to fish for him."

"No, no," cried Roylance; "fetch a line with a running knot, and see if you can't get it round him, and have him out."

Rogers gave his leg a slap.

"That's it, sir. Pity you and me can't be swung over him like we was off the rocks. Easily run it across his nose then."

Roylance could not help a shudder, and he glanced at Syd to see if he was observed.

"I get dreaming about that thing sometimes," he said. "I wonder whether this is the one."

"Hardly likely, but it's sure to be a relation," said Syd, laughing, as they stood watching the movements of the shark, which seemed to be puzzled by its quarters, and was now showing its tail as it dived down under a beam, now raising its head to glide over and disappear in the depths of the s.h.i.+p's hold.

The men were not long in getting the line that had been used to tow the vessel to its moorings, and a freely running noose was prepared and tested by Rogers, who suddenly threw it over one of his messmates'

heads, gave it a s.n.a.t.c.h, and drew it taut. Taking it off, he la.s.soed another in the same way.

"That's the tackle," he said, smiling. "Next thing is to get it round the shark."

"Yes," said Roylance, "but it's something like the rats putting the bell on the cat's neck. Who's to do it?"

"Oh, I'm a-going to do it, sir," said Rogers, shaking out the rope.

"Lay hold, messmates, and when I says 'now!' have him out and over the rocks here.--P'r'aps, sir, you'd like to have an axe to give him number one?"

"How do you mean?"

"One on the tail, sir, to fetch it off; only look out, for he's pretty handy with his tail."

"That's what some one said of the man who had his legs shot off,"

whispered Roylance,

"We're ready, sir," said Rogers, "when you likes to give the word."

"But about danger, my man?" said Syd, who half-wondered at himself, as he hectored over the crew, and thought that he was a good deal like Terry, who was contemptuously looking on.

"Theer's no danger, sir," said Rogers. "I don't know so much about that," said Syd; "suppose you slipped and went down into the hold?"

"Well, in that case, sir," said Rogers, grimly, "Master Jack there would have the best of it, and none of his mates to help. Wonder whether a shark like that shovel-nosed beggar could eat a whole man at a meal?"

"Ugh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Syd, with a shudder. "It's too risky. Better give it up." But the men looked chapfallen.

"But the brute will put a complete stop to our work," said Roylance, who was watching the restless movements of the self-imprisoned shark.

"Don't stop them, Belton," he continued, in a low tone, "I want to see that monster killed."

"For revenge?"

"If you like to call it so. It or one of its fellows made me pa.s.s such moments of agony as I shall never forget."

"I shall never forget my horror either," said Syd, as he too looked viciously at the savage creature, which just then rose out of the water and glided over one of the beams. "There, go on, Rogers, only take great care."

"I just will that, sir," said the man, as his messmates cheered; and taking the noose in his hand he stepped along the plank leading from the rocks to the vessel. "When I say '_now_, lads,' mind you let him feel you directly; and haul him out."

"Ay, ay!" cried the men; and then every eye was fixed upon the active young fellow, whose white feet seemed to cling to the wet planking upon which he stood, and from which he stepped cautiously out upon one of the beams that curved over from side to side.

Hardly was he well out, and stooping down peering into the water, than Syd uttered a warning cry, and the man bounded back as the shark, attracted by the sight of his white legs, came up from behind, and glided exactly over the spot where he had been standing.

"Ah! would yer!" shouted Rogers; and the men roared with laughter.

"This here's fis.h.i.+ng with your own legs for bait," continued the young sailor. "Well, it's got to be who's sharpest--him or me."

"I think you had better not venture," said Syd, hesitating again.

"Oh! don't say that, sir. We shall all be horrid disappointed if we don't get him."

"But see what a narrow escape you had."

"Well, yes, sir; I wasn't quite sharp enough, but there was no harm done."

"Go on," said Syd, unwillingly, as he caught Roylance's eye; and hurrying by for fear that the permission should be withdrawn, the man stepped quickly back on to the beam, keeping a sharp look-out to right and left.

"I see you, you beggar," he said; "come on."

The shark accepted the invitation, and made quite a leap, pa.s.sing over the beam again, diving down, snowing his white, and swam twenty feet away, to turn with difficulty amongst the submerged timber forward, and returned aiming clumsily at the white legs which tempted him, but missing his goal, for the young sailor nimbly leaped ash.o.r.e.

"I shan't get him that way," he said. "Here, give us something white."

There was nothing white handy but blocks of coral, and Rogers solved the difficulty by selecting a hat and taking a handspike.

He tried his plan at least a dozen times without result, and lost two good chances; but the man was too clever for the shark at last. Rogers had scanned pretty accurately the course the brute would pursue, and had noted that when once it gave a vigorous sweep with its tail to send itself forward, there was no variation in its course.

So waiting his time, standing in the middle of the cross-beams with the noose in his hand, he fixed his eye upon his enemy, threw the hat ash.o.r.e as a useless bait, and depending once more upon himself, he waited.

It was not for long. The brute made at him, and as it glided out of the water to seize its prey, Rogers, by a quick leap, spread his legs wide apart and held the noose so cleverly that the shark glided into it as a dog leaps through a hoop; and it was so ingeniously adjusted that the rope tightened directly, almost before the young sailor could shout "_Now_" while the shark went over and down between two of the cross-beams behind his fisher, as, from a cause upon which he had not counted, Rogers took an involuntary header into the part of the water-logged vessel from which the shark had come.

The cause upon which the young sailor had not reckoned was the rope, which, at the shark's plunge as soon as noosed, tightened the line which crossed Rogers' leg, s.n.a.t.c.hed it from under him, and down he went, to the horror of all present.

In a moment the water all about where the shark had plunged began to boil, and the next moment there was a quick splas.h.i.+ng as Rogers' head appeared.