Then, the next instant, a wild frenzied roar of joy echoed fore and aft
the ship, making the _Josephine_ quiver almost down to her bottom
timbers.
"Hooray!"
I could scarcely believe my ears; but, as I looked up in surprise and
wonder I caught sight of Jake's ebony face all aglow with delight, his
eyes rolling about like a vessel in a heavy seaway and his mouth
expanded from ear to ear. He was evidently about to indulge in one of
his usual huge guffaws when especially highly pleased and unable to
contain himself, as he evidently was now.
"Golly, dat splendiferous!" he cried out in ecstasy. "Um beat cock-
fightin' nohow!"
"Bravo, well done!" I heard Captain Miles's voice exclaim also at the
same time, with a joyous heartiness utterly indescribable.
"Why, what has happened, Jake?" I asked, quite puzzled.
"Wat happen', eh, Mass' Tom? I tell um sharp! De sailor man lick de
shark arter all! Him dibe under de fis; as um go to grab him; an' den,
dey catch de nasty debbil one big crack wid um boat-hook, an' pull Mass'
Jackson into der boat. Golly, I'se so berry glad, Mass' Tom! I'se
a'most cry wid joy, for true."
And then, not content with this expression of his feelings, the
sympathetic darkey, sliding down from the rigging where he had been
perched, looking on at the terribly exciting scene taking place a moment
before in the water, tumbled himself over on the deck in paroxysms of
merriment, perfectly unable to restrain himself and keep still.
When I now looked over the side of the ship, which by this time was
hove-to, the gig, with Jackson seated in the stern-sheets by Mr
Marline, was close under the port quarter, and the rescued swimmer with
those who had saved him in the nick of time were just preparing to come
on board.
Presently, Jackson and the mate mounted the side-ladder amidst a perfect
ovation from the crew, all hands cheering like mad and pressing forwards
to shake the fist of him whom they had never expected to see again.
After this the gig was veered astern and hoisted up once more to the
davits, and the _Josephine_, bearing round and filling her sails, again
resumed her north-east course on the starboard tack. The job of making
the port anchor snug inboard was completed later on, when the men had
sobered down somewhat from the excitement which had reigned through the
ship from the moment Jackson had first fallen overboard--it having been
an awfully anxious time throughout his peril by drowning, his
hairbreadth escape from the shark, and his ultimate rescue.
Later on, Moggridge told me how the poor fellow escaped from the very
jaws of death.
Jackson, he said, when he became aware of being pursued by the
bloodthirsty monster, instead of losing his presence of mind, as most
men would have done under the circumstances, remained perfectly calm and
collected, having once before had an encounter with a shark in his
native element.
He swam on steadily towards the ship, apparently unmindful of his enemy;
but, he carefully kept his weather eye opened, and when he saw the brute
going to turn on his back in order to make a snatch at him, he at once
dived under the shark's body, thus circumventing his attack. Before the
monster could recover itself and make a fresh onslaught, Moggridge said,
the chief mate caught it a pretty tidy whack over the head with a boat-
hook, while Jackson was hauled into the gig at the same time by the
other men.
It was a wonderful escape, however, and nothing else was talked of on
board for days after.
Strange to say, too, the shark, as if determined not to be easily balked
of its prey, followed the ship steadily; and this fact, of course, kept
the incident fresh in our minds, even if we had been at all inclined to
forget it, the hideous creature's bottle-like fin ever perceptible in
our wake being a constant reminder!
"He's bound to hab somebody for suah," said the captain's mulatto
steward Harry, who by the way was the person who had given out that
agonised shriek which I had fancied to be poor Jackson's death knell.
"Shark nebber follow ship for nuffin'!"
"No," observed Captain Miles grimly; "this beggar sha'n't at all events,
if I know it!" and he paced up and down the poop, as if revolving the
matter in his mind.
This was the third day after the affair had happened, and the captain
was quite incensed at the shark's pertinacity; for, morning, noon, and
night, whenever we logged over the side, there could be seen the sea-
pirate's long sinewy body, floating under our stern and always keeping
pace with the ship whether she was going fast or slow--although, as we
had little or no wind, the latter was generally the case.
"I fancy, Mr Marline," said the captain, soon after replying to Harry's
rather frightened observation, the mulatto being very timid and of a
cowardly nature, as the fact of his fainting when the cow invaded the
cabin would readily tell--"I say, Mr Marline, I think it's time for us
to give that joker down there a lesson, eh?"
"Perhaps you'll find him too artful to take a hook, cap'en," answered
the mate. "He seems to me an `old sojer,' from the look of him and the
regularity of his movements. Just see him now looking up, as if
listening to what we were saying!"
"Well, we'll try him anyway," said Captain Miles, telling Moggridge to
bring the shark hook aft, as he wished to attempt the capture of our
unwelcome attendant.
"Aye, aye, sir," replied the boatswain, going forwards and presently
returning with a large steel hook, much about the same size as those
they use in butchers' shops for hanging meat on. A piece of chain was
attached to this by a swivel instead of rope or a line, which, although
good enough for other fish, the saw-like teeth of the monster of the
deep would quickly have bitten through.
"Is the tackle all sound?" asked the captain.
"Aye, aye, sir; sound enough to catch a whale," responded Moggridge,
proceeding to bait the hook with a four-pound piece of salt pork which
completely concealed the barbs; and then, a stout half-inch rope having
been fastened on to the end of the chain, the whole apparatus was thrown
overboard close to where the shark was patrolling the water under our
stern.
He sheered off a bit on hearing the splash; but afterwards soon swam up
to where the baited hook was towing in our wake, smelling at it
cautiously as if to see whether it was advisable for him to bolt the
savoury morsel or not. Then, with a disdainful swish of his screw-like
tail, he turned round in the water and resumed his station further
astern, as if he saw through our attempt to entrap him, and despised it.
"I thought so," said Mr Marline. "He's too old a bird to be caught by
chaff. You won't hook him in a blue moon!"
"Don't you be too cocksure of that," retorted Captain Miles. "Sharks, I
have noticed, frequently resemble cats in the way they will nibble at a
bait, and pretend they don't care about it, when all the while they are
dying to gobble it down--just in the same manner as you'll observe
pussy, if you offer her a nice bit of meat, will sniff and turn away her
head as if rejecting the morsel with disdain, affecting to make you
believe it beneath her notice, only the next moment to abstract it slily
from your hand, glad enough to get it! You'll see presently, Mr
Marline, that our friend there will go at the pork again, I'll bet
anything."
"All right, cap'en," replied Mr Marline. "I only hope, I'm sure, that
your anticipation will prove correct;" but, from the sly quizzical smile
on his face and the dry way in which he spoke, I don't think the mate
believed in our hooking the ugly brute, all the same.
After a little time, I noticed two small fishes coming up towards the
bait and poking their pointed noses into it as if taking observations,
and I called Captain Miles's attention to them.
"Oh, that's a good sign," said he. "Those are pilot-fish, which always
accompany his majesty Mr Shark in the way of _aides-de-camp_, as you
call those smart gentlemen in gay uniforms who are usually seen prancing
about the general at a review of troops ashore. Whenever you see the
little chaps, the shark himself is never far off, for they precede him
as his scouts to warn him of danger as well as tell him if there's
anything worth grabbing in the offing. If it wasn't for them I believe
he'd fare rather badly, as his own sight is bad--fortunately for poor
fellows that fall in the water in the way Jackson did t'other day!"
"But, captain," I remarked, "they must be very bad guides if they do not
tell the shark about the hook."
"Aye," he replied; "something like `the blind leading the blind,' eh?
Still, you know Moggridge has taken care that the bait carefully
conceals the snare within, and the pilot-fish are none the wiser. See
them now!"
As I watched, I noticed first one and then the other of the little fish
smell at the piece of pork, making their observations apparently, after
which they swam back to the side of the shark, where they remained for a
moment on either side of his snout, as if they were making their report
upon the tempting object and giving their master all particulars.
Then the shark, with a fluke of his tail, also advanced closer to the
bait, which just then, by a twist of the rope attached to it, the
boatswain jerked away.
This was enough for Master Shark, who, thinking he was going to lose the
coveted morsel, at once sheered alongside of it, turning over on his
back and opening his terrible-looking cavern of a mouth in the same way
I had seen him do when he tried to catch poor Jackson. The recollection
of that made me shudder all over!
The next moment the monster had bolted both bait and hook, as well as a
couple of feet of the chain; but when he turned to sheer off again he
was "brought up with a round turn," as sailors say, by the rope
tightening suddenly, the jerk almost making him turn a somersault in the
water.
He was not altogether captured yet, however, and his struggles to get
free were tremendous. Really, his jaws must have been pretty tough to
have not given way under the furious flings and writhings he made to
release himself; for the strong half-inch manilla rope that held him
tethered was stretched like a fiddle-string, its strands all quivering
with the strain upon it.
First to one side of the ship and then to the other the brute bounded in
turns, making the sea boil around him like a whirlpool, until finally,
after half an hour's fight of it, he gave in and lay quiet, although not
dead yet by any means.
As soon as the shark began to flounder about, I noticed that the pilot-
fish went away, leaving him alone in his extremity; and on my mentioning
this to Mr Marline he took the opportunity of pointing a moral for my
especial benefit.
"It's just the way in the world, Master Tom," said he. "Foolish
companions lead many a young fellow into a scrape; but as soon as they
see him in the mess into which they were the means of inveigling him,
they scuttle off, abandoning him to his fate and probably laughing at
his troubles too."
"Aye," put in Captain Miles, wishing also to improve the occasion; "and
if that shark had not been so madly impetuous in rushing at the hook he
would never have been caught; in the same way as somebody told me of a
certain young gentleman, who, not looking before he leaped, as the
proverb says, and only thinking of the end he had in view, galloped down
a hill and came to grief--getting a tumble which laid him up for weeks!"
"Oh, Captain Miles," said I, "you don't think I'm a shark, do you?"
"Well, not quite so bad as that, youngster," he replied with one of his
cheery laughs; "but, quite as impetuous sometimes, eh, Master Tom?"
I made no answer to this thrust, knowing there was some truth in it, my
mother having frequently to call me over the coals for doing things on
the spur of the moment, which, as she was aware, I always regretted
afterwards.
This thoughtless impulse is a great fault, as I know to my cost; for, it
has led me into many a scrape--sometimes to the danger of my life!
While we were talking the shark was still struggling in the water; but
when he grew tolerably composed, only an occasional splash of his tail
showing that he yet lived, the men began to make preparations for
hauling him on board.
The bight of a rope was made into a running knot and hove round the body
of the animal; when, the men hauling away with a will at the other end
of the line, which was passed through a snatch-block hung in the
rigging, the captive was soon bowsed up to the mizzen chains.
No sooner, however, was he got out of the water than the hampered
monster appeared to be imbued with fresh vitality, lashing his tail
about and splintering the wood-work of the bulwarks as if it had been
brown paper; but when the slip-knot was drawn tighter this controlled
his frantic movements a bit, and Jackson, who was allowed precedence of
the rest of the sailors from his previous acquaintance with the savage
brute, then advanced with a sharp butcher's knife, which he had borrowed
from the cook, in order to give his old enemy his quietus.
Taking care not to get within reach of either the jaws or ponderous tail
of the shark, he leaned over the side of the ship and stabbed it in the
neck; after which, with two long slashing cuts he severed the head,
which quickly splashed down into the sea under the counter, sinking to
the bottom at once from the mere weight of the bone it contained.
Jackson then proceeded, by the captain's orders, to rip open the
animal's stomach; but it was found to contain nothing digestible but the
piece of pork which had led to the brute's capture, the shark evidently
having been lately on short allowance.
When, however, Jackson extracted the hook from the bait, he started back
suddenly as if he had received a blow, clutching hold of the shrouds to
steady himself.