THE SPOILS OF WAR
Just where the cabin stood was a little bay formed by an inward bend of
the coast, and in this the water was comparatively smooth.
Lester headed his boat into this and Ross, who took his sailing
directions from the _Ariel_, followed his example.
A hundred yards from shore, Fred ran down the sail and the boat drifted
in with its own momentum, while Lester took soundings cautiously to find
the best place to cast anchor. The _Ariel_ was of light draught,
and, with the centerboard up, found three feet of water ample to prevent
her scraping.
"Here we are," Lester said at last, when the two boats had reached a
suitable spot and he could see the sandy bottom through the clear water.
"Heave over the anchor now, and you fellows stand ready to go
overboard."
The boys followed his directions, and a moment later all were in the
water.
Lester had previously unfastened the line by which they had been towing
the shark and thrown it over to Fred, who stood the nearest to the
shore. The rest ranged themselves along the line at intervals and bent
their backs to the strain.
For strain it proved to be. While the huge carcass was floating clear of
the bottom it was comparatively easy to draw him along; but when the
lower part began to scrape, it was a more difficult matter. They
progressed only an inch at a time. By taking advantage of the rollers,
however, as they came tumbling in, the boys finally got their booty to
the edge of the water line. They could not drag it entirely clear of the
water, but got it half way out, the head and upper part of the body
remaining exposed, while the tail swished idly to and fro in the shallow
water.
"Whew!" said Teddy, wiping his streaming forehead. "I wouldn't like to
work so hard as that every day in the week."
"You won't have to," remarked Lester, comfortingly. "Lightning doesn't
strike twice in the same place, and the chances are that you'll never
catch a shark again in your life."
"As long as a shark never catches me, I won't kick," said the
philosophical Bill.
They threw themselves down on the beach, panting and perspiring. The day
was very warm, and the excitement of the catch, together with their
recent efforts, made the rest a needed and grateful one.
"Well," said Lester, the first to get on his feet again, "while you
weary Willies are loafing here, I'm going up to Mark's cabin and see if
he's at home. The chances are that he isn't, or he'd have been out to
see what all this fuss was about. Still, he may be asleep. Anyway,
whether he's home or not, I want to scare up an axe or hatchet or
something of the kind to dig out that harpoon."
"What's the matter with the hatchet we've got?" asked Teddy lazily.
"That's rather small, and, besides, with that only one can work at a
time. It'll take some digging to get through that hide. Then, too, you
fellows were talking of getting out the teeth and strips of the hide for
mementoes, and you can't do that with your pocket knives alone."
"Go on then, you horny-handed son of toil, and luck be with you,"
drawled Bill. "You'll find us here when you get back."
"I'm sure of that," retorted Lester. "It would take an earthquake to
make you fellows move."
Lester went up the beach until he reached the open door of the cabin and
looked in. He found it deserted as he had expected. He went in and
hunted about among its meagre belongings and came back to the boys,
triumphant, bringing with him a hatchet, an axe and a large, keen-bladed
knife that was used by Mark in cleaning his fish.
"Here they are!" he exclaimed, as he laid them down on the sand. "Mark
wasn't at home, so I made free with these things of his, as I knew he
wouldn't mind. There's no further excuse for you hoboes now, and you
want to get a wiggle on."
"Take back them cruel woids," groaned Teddy.
"Listen to the chant of the slave driver!" jibed Bill.
"There's nothing left but to obey, shipmates," said Fred with mock
resignation. "Remember he's the captain and we don't want to be tried
for mutiny."
They distributed the implements among them and moved in a body toward
the shark.
The first thing to do was to get out the harpoon, and this was no easy
task, for the barb of the shank lay deeply imbedded among the tough
fibres of its victim. The implement was freed at last, however, and
Lester carefully washed it off in the water and then polished it with
sand until it shone.
"Just see him gloat," laughed Teddy. "You'd think he was a pilgrim who
had just come across a precious relic."
"Or a miner who had found a diamond," added Ross.
"He's earned the right to gloat," maintained Fred. "If I'd driven home a
harpoon with such a sure hand and steady aim as his, I'd be so proud
that my hat wouldn't fit me."
"I'm thinking as much of dad as I am of myself," grinned Lester. "He'll
be tickled to death when he hears that I've speared a shark with that
old harpoon of his. He's always thought a lot of it, but he'll think
still more of it now."
"Well, now that the harpoon is out, let's turn this fellow on his back.
I want to have a good look at that mouth of his," remarked Fred.
It was quite an undertaking, but by distributing themselves along the
body, using their implements as levers and all heaving at a given
signal, they finally succeeded.
It was a frightful mouth, armed with huge rows of sawlike teeth, and
although they knew the brute was dead the boys could not repress a
shudder as they looked at it.
"Talk about a buzz saw!" exclaimed Teddy. "It couldn't cut you in two
more neatly than this fellow could when he was swimming around."
"If those teeth could talk, I imagine they'd have some stories to tell,"
added Ross.
"And they wouldn't be pretty stories either," observed Bill.
"I wouldn't want him to be the undertaker at my funeral," said Fred, who
could not help thinking that that dismal function might have been
performed by this shark or some other the day he had gone overboard.
"Look at those wicked eyes," said Lester. "They're almost as fiendish
now as they were when they looked up at us as he came swimming around
the boat. I'll wager we'll see them more than once in our dreams."
"As long as we don't see them any other way it won't matter much,"
concluded Bill, the practical.
It was a full hour before the boys had cut the teeth from the bony
sockets and had secured all the strips of hide they wanted to make up
into souvenirs.
"We'll leave the rest of the carcass here until the tide comes in and
carries it away," remarked Lester, when the work was finished. "It'll
float out to sea and the other fish will make short work of it."
"That'll be only justice," said Teddy. "He's feasted on them or their
brothers by the ton in his time."
"The gulls will help them out," said Lester, as he pointed to a number
of the great birds circling around. "They're getting ready now to pick
the bones, and are only waiting for us to get out of the way before they
settle down to the job."
"It's getting pretty late, isn't it?" inquired Bill. "I hardly think
we'll see Bartanet Shoals again to-night."
"Not a chance in the world," replied Lester, as he looked at the sky,
already crimsoning in the west. "We'll have to stay all night with Mark
and make a break for home in the morning. But it doesn't matter, and dad
won't be worrying about us this time, especially if the weather stays
clear."
"I'm afraid Mark will find it some job to put us up for the night,"
observed Ross, as he noted the tiny dimensions of the little cabin on
the beach.
"It isn't exactly a summer hotel," grinned Lester. "There's only one
room and that's pretty well cluttered up with his nets and tackle and
other junk."
"We'll probably have to sleep outside on the sand," remarked Bill.
"All the more fun," chimed in Teddy. "We've done it once and we can do
it again. One thing sure, there won't be any kick coming on the question
of ventilation. The earth for a bed, the sky for a blanket----"
"And the sea for a lullaby," finished Ross.