THE SHARK
The change of circumstances pleased every one except Billy the parrot.
He had never taken kindly to Fangati, but had always ruffled his
feathers and squawked angrily when he saw her with Tommy. The girls
laughed at these manifestations of jealousy. But when Billy was
removed from his home, and found that his mistress's attentions were
shared by still another person, he became sulky. He would sit on a
rock, or the bough of a tree, blinking his bead-like eyes and
maintaining a sullen and reproachful silence.
Tommy was so much taken up with Fangati that it is to be feared she
somewhat neglected her old favourite, as was perfectly natural under
the circumstances. When Fangati and her grandfather had finished the
new hut, which occupied them only two days, the young girls were
constantly together. Tommy, now that her fear of cannibal neighbours
was removed, became again the active, light-hearted, adventurous girl
she had ever been. She roamed all over the island with Fangati, not
even excepting the region of the tapu, for she found that the native
girl was ready to go in any direction, provided she did not catch sight
of the posts on the ridge. They discovered in company other
plantations of wholesome fruits, of kinds which Tommy already knew, and
of others which were strange to her. Fangati showed her how to fish in
the native way with a spear of sharpened wood. At first Tommy was
sceptical about this, declaring that with the line and hook she would
catch more fish than Fangati with the spear. But she soon found that
she was quite wrong. Leaning over the edge of a rock, with her keen
eyes fixed on the water, Fangati would plunge her spear rapidly, and
scarcely ever failed to bring up a fish as large as Tommy caught, and
much more quickly. Tommy tried to imitate her, and was exceedingly
proud when, after dozens of fruitless attempts, she succeeded in
spearing her first fish.
In the course of one of their early rambles the girls came to the pit
into which Tommy had fallen. Fangati was much interested in this,
having never seen it before, and she ran to fetch her grandfather to
the spot. The girls asked him what was the purpose of the pit, and he
thought at first that it had been dug as a storehouse for breadfruit.
But when Tommy told him about the tunnel through which she had crawled,
and of the hole in the wall at the farther end, he looked puzzled and
declared that he would go down and see for himself. It did not take
long to construct a serviceable ladder with stout canes bound together
with creepers, and the whole party descended into the pit and followed
Tommy through the tunnel.
Arriving at the end, Maku looked curiously over the ledge. He
explained to the girls that the dim-lit space beyond was the cave in
which the mystic ceremonies of his people were conducted. The reason
of the existence of the pit was now plain to him. There was a
tradition among his tribe that one of his predecessor chiefs had shown
an extraordinary knowledge of some of the secret performances of the
mystery men at which he had not been present.
"I unastan," said Maku. "He find hole; he look; oh! he say, dis fine
place fo' me. All-same he makee way dis side; makee pit; come 'long,
listen, look see; eh, eh; he know all-same too much."
His explanation was not very clear, but after a time the girls
understood that the former chief, having accidentally discovered the
tunnel opening to the cave, had dug the pit so that he could approach
it from the inland direction, and had thus provided himself with a
means of eavesdropping. Apparently he had covered the pit with a light
lattice-work--as the breadfruit pit was usually covered--and this in
the course of years had become overgrown with vegetation, so that
nobody could have suspected the hole beneath.
On returning to the surface they pulled up the ladder and laid it among
the trees near by. More than once during the succeeding days Tommy and
Fangati amused themselves by descending into the pit and chasing each
other in the darkness of the tunnel. They invented other amusements.
Tommy ran races with Fangati, played at hide-and-seek in the woods,
practised shying at cocoa-nuts. All the girls had swimming
competitions in the cove at low tide, and though the English girls
became very expert, they were no match for Fangati, who dived and
gambolled in the water as though in her native element.
In constant companionship with Fangati, they learnt in course of time
many native words, and she on her side picked up a smattering of
English. They were thus able to communicate with her freely. She
amused them by her mispronunciations. The letter r was a
stumbling-block. "Run" was always "lun"; "bekfas leady," she would
say; and she adopted from her grandfather the expression "all-same,"
which she used frequently and in odd connections.
"I lun all-same kick, Me Tommee," she would say, when Tommy had beaten
her in a race; or if, in a game of hide-and-seek, it was Mary's turn to
hide, "Mailee all-same hidee-sik," was her way of putting it.
One day, having had no success at their usual fishing-place at the
mouth of the cove, Fangati proposed that she and Tommy should go to a
spot about half-a-mile up the coast, where she had sometimes caught
fish before the girls came. Elizabeth had laid no restrictions on
Tommy as regards her fishing excursions, except that she had asked her
not to go out of sight of their little harbour. Remembering how
Fangati had been carried out to sea, she wished to guard against any
repetition of that mishap.
The spot to which Fangati pointed was beyond the usual limit. It was
not, however, far distant from the shore, and Fangati had been much
farther out when her canoe was caught by the current. Elizabeth had
gone with Mary into the interior to gather breadfruit, so that it was
impossible to consult her; and Tommy, anxious to have some fish for
dinner by the time her sisters returned, agreed to try the new place.
They reached it in the canoe, Tommy paddling. It was a large flat rock
a few hundred yards from the shore, with a deep pool on its inner side.
There they had great success, in the course of half-an-hour spearing
enough fish for several meals. Thoroughly satisfied, they had just
turned their canoe towards home when Tommy caught sight of a large
shape moving rapidly beneath the surface of the water.
"Oh! what's that?" she cried.
Almost before the words were out of her mouth the canoe quivered under
a terrific shock. Then it was rocked violently to and fro, so
violently that the sea came over the gunwale and the girls had to throw
themselves on to the opposite side to prevent the slight craft from
overturning. As they did this there was a sudden sharp sound as of
something snapping. Instantly the canoe turned over, and the girls
found themselves in the sea.
Fangati laughed.
"All-same jolly fun," she said.
Tommy was not so much amused. Being able to swim she did not mind the
sudden bath; but all the fish were gone; the morning's work was thrown
away.
Fangati quickly righted the canoe, and having clambered into it, helped
Tommy to regain her place. There was, of course, a quantity of water
at the bottom of the little vessel.
"What was it?" exclaimed Tommy, shaking the water from her head. "Was
it a shark?"
Fangati looked about her. In a moment she pointed to a strange object,
something like the end of a saw, projecting from the bottom of the
canoe. Tommy had never seen such a thing before. Stooping down, she
pulled at it. It was loosely fixed, and came away in her hand.
Instantly there was an inrush of water.
"No, no, silly Billy," cried Fangati, using an expression she had heard
Tommy apply to the parrot.
She snatched the broken sword of the sword-fish from Tommy's hand, and
tried to replace it. But though she succeeded in wedging it into the
wood, it failed to stop the hole entirely. Without loss of time she
seized her paddle and started for the shore, about a quarter of a mile
distant. But the canoe had shipped a considerable quantity of water,
and this was being continually increased by the inflow through the
leak. It sunk lower and lower, and every minute answered less readily
to Fangati's paddle. It soon became clear to the girls that the canoe
must sink long before they reached the shore. They could easily gain
the land by swimming, but the canoe could not be recovered if it sank.
Between them and the shore a rock stood just above the surface. It was
only about a hundred yards away, and Fangati, exerting all her
strength, drove the canoe towards it, and reached it in the nick of
time. In another few seconds the canoe must have foundered.
There was not much room on the rock. Tommy scrambled on to it, while
Fangati, slipping over into the sea, prepared to help Tommy drag the
canoe up, so that they might tilt the water out of it, and try to stop
the leak with a handkerchief, or a part of Tommy's skirt.
They had just begun to tilt the canoe when Tommy caught sight of a
small dark object on the surface of the sea about thirty or forty yards
away. It was the fin of a shark.
"Fangati, quick!" she called, holding out her hands to help the girl
clamber on to the rock.
Fangati's back was towards the shark and she did not understand what
the peril was. But the note of terror in Tommy's voice alarmed her.
She let go her hold of the canoe, gained the edge of the rock in two
strokes, and with Tommy's help scrambled up just as the shark glided
past into the deep water beyond.
"Eh! Eh!" exclaimed Fangati, when she saw the reason of Tommy's
fright. "I no aflaid, what fo' aflaid of he? You see, all-same."
She was about to dive into the sea and swim after the canoe, which was
already drifting away, but Tommy caught her and held her fast. "No,
no, you mustn't," she cried anxiously.
"Boat lun kick," cried Fangati in excitement.
The canoe, relieved of the girls' weight, would no doubt float longer
than if they had still been in it, but Tommy realized that it must soon
sink.
"Never mind," she cried. "Better lose the canoe than lose you."
Fangati stood beside her for some time, but Tommy soon became aware of
a double danger. The tide was rising. Every moment the ripples washed
a little farther over the rock: by and by this would be completely
submerged and they would have to swim to the shore. The thought of
this necessity filled Tommy with terror. The shark had disappeared
only for a moment. She could now see it again, circling about the
rock, as if it knew that it had only to bide its time and the girls
would fall an easy prey. As soon as there was sufficient depth of
water on the rock they would be absolutely defenceless against the
monster's hungry jaws.
Clinging to Fangati, Tommy called aloud for help; then, glancing
shorewards, recognized that there was little chance of her voice being
heard through the belt of woodland that separated her from the camp.
The sea now thinly covered the rock. The canoe was rocking on the tide
several yards away; the fin of the shark could still be seen as it
wheeled around. Fangati, as well aware of the danger as Tommy, could
remain inactive no longer.
"Knife!" she cried eagerly, pointing to Tommy's pocket.
"What are you going to do?" asked Tommy.
"You see. Kick! kick!" said the girl.
"Don't leave me," pleaded Tommy, handing her the knife.
Fangati looked around as if in search of something. Suddenly she
snatched Tommy's handkerchief, which was tucked into her belt, and
dived off the rock. When she disappeared Tommy saw the handkerchief
floating. In a moment the shark rushed silently through the water,
attracted by the splash. As it came beneath the handkerchief, which
Fangati had dropped as a decoy, she came up beneath it and plunged the
knife deep into its side. Then she dived again and disappeared.
The shark, thrashing the water into foam, dashed about in zigzag
fashion. Tommy watched it fascinated, fearing that it might have
struck Fangati. But in a moment she heard the girl's merry laugh
behind her. Fangati came up on the farther side of the rock, on to
which she clambered, splashing through the water to Tommy's side. The
girls watched the gradually weakening movements of the monster, until
at length with a final heave it sank to the bottom.
"S'im! S'im!" cried Fangati, pointing to the shore.
"Oh, I couldn't," said Tommy, clinging to the girl.
The possibility of there being other sharks between her and the shore
unnerved her. Yet if she remained on this rock she must be washed off
presently by the fast-rising tide. She was in a terrible state of
anxiety, aware that she could not keep her footing long, yet unable to
face the risk of being caught by a shark. Fangati seemed to guess at
her state of mind. Disengaging herself from Tommy's grasp, without
waiting for objections, she slipped off the rock and swam rapidly after
the canoe, which was drifting farther and farther down the coast.
Tommy watched her anxiously. Would she reach the canoe safely? Could
she return with it in time?
The water was now up to Tommy's waist; she could hardly keep her
footing as the tide surged over the rock. The gap between the little
black head and the canoe was steadily diminishing. Tommy gave a gasp
of relief as she saw that Fangati had overtaken the little craft. But
what was she doing? She had swum beyond it. In a moment Tommy saw the
explanation: the paddle had drifted beyond the canoe, and the swimmer
had to recover it first. Fangati caught the paddle, turned about, and
swimming back to the canoe, climbed over its side.
Tommy was seized with a sickening fear that help would come too late.
The waves were tumbling over the rock with increasing force: her feet
were lifted: she had the presence of mind to tread water, but was all
the time in a state of nervous terror, expecting a shark to come up and
snatch her in its horrid jaws. She felt that Fangati in the
water-logged canoe could not reach her in time. Again she screamed for
help.
[Illustration: "SHE FELT THAT FANGATI COULD NOT REACH HER IN TIME."]
There came an answer from behind her. Turning her head, scarcely able
to keep afloat, she saw Elizabeth in the dinghy sculling towards her.
She swam frantically to meet her: to regain a foothold on the rock was
now impossible. Elizabeth, glancing over her shoulder, called a cheery
word, and pulled so as to meet her sister. A few more strokes brought
them together. Elizabeth shipped oars, but found that she could not
lift Tommy into the dinghy without assistance. Luckily Fangati was
close at hand in the canoe, now so full of water as to be on the point
of sinking. When she arrived Tommy was got into the boat, and lay down
exhausted. Elizabeth pulled her rapidly to land, while Fangati,
disdaining sharks, leapt into the sea, and swam, pushing the canoe in
front of her.
Tommy was very contrite when Elizabeth lifted her on to dry land. "I
won't do it again, Bess," she murmured, clinging to her sister. "I
oughtn't to have gone so far. I was nearly drowned."
"Never mind, dear," said Elizabeth. "It's all right now. I was a
little anxious when I got back and found you still away, and I'm so
glad I came to look for you. Do you know, when I caught sight of
Fangati and couldn't see you I had a most horrible fear. What
happened? Why didn't you swim ashore?"
Tommy told her the whole story. Elizabeth forbore to reproach her.
She saw that the young girl had suffered a terrible fright, and it
would not be necessary to enforce the lesson. She gave Fangati warm
praise for what she had done, and Tommy's fondness for the native girl
was deepened by this adventure they had shared.