The man seemed out of his senses or bewildered by something, for his
eyes moved about strangely, although with a savage gleam in them, while
his hair appeared to bristle up.
"Well, what is the matter?" said Jackson at length, after enduring his
gaze for a moment or two, waiting for the other to speak. "Do you want
water? Shall I get you some?"
This apparently broke the spell which was upon the wretched man, whose
constitution had been much enfeebled by his drinking habits--making him
thus less able to contend against the exposure and privations | we had
been subjected to than the rest of us.
The minute Jackson spoke, he uttered a queer sort of half-groan, half-
shriek; and having previously, I suppose, untied the rope with which he
had been lashed to the rigging, he made a dash at the second mate with
both his hands, trying to grip his throat and strangle him.
"You devil!" he cried, foaming at the mouth with passion, "you've taken
my place and brought me to this."
Jackson easily repulsed his struggles to do him any injury; but, before
he and the other sailors could secure the madman, he sprang to his feet
and, shouting out something which we could not distinguish, jumped right
down among the group of sharks that were still swimming about under the
stern.
There was a heavy plunge, followed by a wild scurrying to and fro in the
water of the moving fins; and, a moment after, when the sea had got
still again, a circle of blood on the surface alone told of the unhappy
man's fate.
The incident saddened us all very much, taking away our hopeful thoughts
and courage alike; so we waited on listlessly for what we now believed
must shortly be our own doom, not a soul speaking a word or even looking
at his neighbour for some time afterwards.
Jackson was the first to recover himself.
The sight of the cruel sharks under the ship's counter and the memory of
our two shipmates, whom they had already devoured, appeared to prey on
his mind and make him furious.
"I can't stand this any longer," he cried. "I must try and kill one of
these brutes, captain, or die in the attempt!"
Captain Miles thought he had gone out of his senses too and spoke
soothingly to him; but Jackson soon showed that if he had become insane
there was a method in his madness.
Rising on his feet, he walked on the top of the bulwarks to the main-
shrouds, and clambering out on his hands and knees along these, made his
way to where a long wooden handspike, that had been used for heaving
round the windlass, was floating under the rigging.
Picking up this and cutting off a good length of the topsail halliards,
he came back to where we all were, and proceeded to make a running noose
at the end of the rope.
"What are you going to do?" asked Captain Miles, not quite certain yet
of Jackson's sanity.
"I'm going to try to get one of the sharks to come close enough to give
him a taste of this handspike," said the stalwart young fellow, drawing
himself up to his full height, and looking round with a determined
expression on his face that I had never seen there before. "If I can
only get them all to come to the inside of the ship, I shall do for one
or two, I know."
"Golly, Massa Jackson, me help you wid um knife," exclaimed Jake,
entering with much animation in the other's project. "S'pose we fiss
for um wid sumfin', so as make um swim roun' t'oder side ob ship, hey?"
"That's a good idea," said Captain Miles, and he offered Jake his hat to
use as a bait, but the darkey shook his head at this.
"No, tankee, Mass' Cap'en, I'se got sumfin' better nor dat," he
exclaimed, pulling off the guernsey with which he had sheltered me the
first night we were exposed on the wreck. "Dis do ebber so much
betterer. Shark smell um, an' tink he hab dis niggah, yah, yah!"
As he laughed, he tied one end of a bit of the signal halliards, which
he had used to lash himself to the rigging, to the guernsey, lowering it
down to a short distance above the surface of the water, where he kept
it dangling.
One of the sharks rose towards it, another coming up soon after in its
train; and then Jake kept continually shifting the rope round that
portion of the taffrail of the poop which was above the sea, the sharks
following in chase of the deceptive bait until he had lured them round
to the inside part of the ship to join the one who was still on sentry
there.
This was just what Jackson wanted; so he now proceeded to climb out
along the mizzen rigging until he reached the point where the sea lapped
it, when he arranged his running noose underneath, tying the loose end
of the rope to the shrouds in a double hitch.
Jake then manoeuvred the baited line nearer to where the second mate had
stationed himself, climbing out into the mizzen rigging too; when, as
the leading shark turned over on its back and bit at the guernsey,
Jackson slipped the running knot over its tail, pulling the noose in so
that it held tightly. Then, seizing the handspike, he began belabouring
the monster in a way that must pretty well have astonished its weak
nerves, Jake the while stabbing it in the tail-end of the body with his
long-bladed knife.
There was a terrific scuffle in which the water was tossed high in the
air; but, after a minute or two, the shark broke the rope and managed to
get away, although it was so seriously injured that it still remained on
its back, and a quantity of blood poured out from the wounds it had
received.
This made the crippled animal's comrades set upon it, tearing it to
pieces between them; and, while they were gorging themselves with the
dissevered carcass, Jake dived into the sea under the fierce creatures,
stabbing them wherever he could with such effect that his onslaught
frightened the whole lot away--not a shark being visible in the vicinity
within a few minutes after the commencement of the fray!
"Jerryboosalum!" exclaimed Jake, when, presently, he emerged all
dripping and triumphant from the blood-stained waters. "We pay out dem
debbels for ebberybody now. You nebber see dem come back hyar agin,
I'se bet."
Nor did we.
There was no doubt of the rapacious brutes having been finally scared
away.
"You're a couple of brave fellows," cried Captain Miles when the two
avengers climbed back in again on to the poop bulwarks, after thus
carrying the war into Egypt, routing the foes that had kept us so long
prisoners, and prevented us from doing anything towards righting the
ship. "Now, I think, we can make another attempt to find that axe of
the carpenter's in the fo'c's'le, if you are not too tired, Jake, to go
in after it again?"
"Bress you, no, Mass' Captain, me no tire' at all! Me get axe in brace
ob shakes, if um dar," answered the willing fellow, laughing and showing
his shining ivory teeth as he opened his mouth from ear to ear; and,
almost as soon as he had uttered the words, he ran along the bulwarks
towards the fore part of the ship, scrambled out into the main rigging,
and dived into the sea immediately over the opening into the forecastle,
at the same spot where he had previously gone down.
Once, twice, he came up to the surface again to take breath after a
lengthened stay under the water; but, each time he rose with empty
hands.
A third time he reappeared, still unsuccessful; and then we began to
give up hope, although watching him all the while with the most intense
anxiety.
None spoke a word, hardly daring to move.
Our interest in his actions was keen to intensity!
Our fate seemed trembling in the balance.
Once more he dived.
This was the fourth time he had ventured beneath the sea in his search
for the coveted weapon, which was to free the ship from the cumbersome
masts and top-hamper that kept her down on her beam-ends.
Unless we got the axe we would never be able to right her again; and we
all regarded this dive of Jake's as the last chance, although we did not
exchange a syllable--our looks expressed our thoughts.
Jake now remained longer below than he had yet done, so we feared some
mishap had befallen him; but, just as Jackson was preparing to dive down
into the water that covered the forecastle, to see what had become of
him, the plucky darkey popped up above the surface, holding something in
one hand as he swam with the other towards the main rigging.
Our hearts beat high with expectation.
In another minute, Jake had mounted into the shrouds, when our suspense
was quickly relieved; for, no sooner had he clambered near enough to the
ship's side to get a support for his feet, than he raised himself erect.
"Golly, Mass' Cap'en," he sang out in feeble accents, being now pretty
well exhausted with his repeated efforts, "I'se got him at last! I'se
got him at last!"
At the same time, he lifted up whatever it was he held in his hand, and
tried to wave it round his head in token of his victory.
It was Adze's axe.
"Hooray!" shouted Captain Miles at the extreme pitch of his voice, and
the responsive cheer we raised in chorus might have been heard more than
a mile away.