"We must go in quick. Sharks--two of them--after me," and again she
stared wildly over her shoulder with that terrified and haunted look.
And indeed a very uncomfortable feeling came over myself, for there I
was, over a hundred yards from shore, treading water, with a badly
frightened child hanging on to my shoulder, the breakers in front and
this other peril behind.
Peril indeed! Seldom, if ever, have I known such a chilling of the
blood as that which now went through my frame. A black glistening
object was sliding through the water, five-and-twenty yards away,
perhaps less--a rakish triangular object, with which I was familiar
enough by that time to identify as the dorsal fin of a shark, and a
large one too. And, great heaven! even nearer still on the other side
was another of those dreadful glistening fins.
"We'll scare them effectually," I said, with a hollow and ghastly grin
of assumed levity. And springing half out of the water I emitted a most
fiendish yell, while falling back again with a mighty splash. It was
effective, for the two hateful objects sheered off, gliding away a short
distance--but only a short distance.
"Come now," I said, making a most prodigious splashing. "We must get
in. Swim with me. Hold my hand if you are tired."
"No, I'm all right now," said the plucky little thing, beginning to
strike out quite easily and naturally. Then I saw her face pale, and
she stole a quick, terrified look over her shoulder, and I felt mine do
ditto. For there--keeping pace with us, one on each side, and about the
same distance at which we had first sighted them, moved the two horrors.
They were trying to get ahead of us, to cut us off before we could
reach the broken water, wherein they dare not venture.
I once knew a man who had escaped from the foundering of the ill-fated
_Birkenhead_, and he attributed his exemption to the fact that time had
lacked wherein to divest himself of his clothing before starting to swim
ashore--for two sailors, who had been able to strip, were pulled under,
one on each side of him. And now this idea flashed a wonderful hope
into my mind, for I was almost fully clothed and my little companion
wore a bathing dress. But her strokes were quick and spasmodic, and she
panted. Terror was sapping her natural confidence in the water.
"This won't do," I cried in a loud hectoring voice. "Keep cool, can't
you, and don't be a little idiot."
The bullying tone told, as I intended it should. The look she gave me
was amusingly resentful and contemptuous. But she ceased to swim
wildly. At the same time our slimy enemies increased their distance,
doubtless alarmed at the sound of my voice, which I also intended. To
my unspeakable and heartfelt relief we were now on the upheave of the
curling combers, and those horrible fins were still behind.
But we were not out of the wood yet--no, not by any means; for here
before us lay a peril almost as formidable in itself. My little
companion swam gracefully and with ease, but when we came within the
breakers I kept tight hold of her, and indeed such precaution was
needed, for she began to regain her terrors as the huge combers whirled
us high in the air, to throw us, half smothered into a hissing cauldron
of milky foam. However, they threw us forward, and by using my judgment
I managed so that we should ride more and more in on the crest of each
roller. And the undertow at the very last proved the most difficult of
all to withstand, and twice we were dragged irresistibly backward, to be
pounded by the breaking thunder of the next onrushing comber. At last
we were through, and I believe but for the incentive afforded by the
very act of saving life, I should have collapsed--anyway, the child
could never have gained that beach unaided.
We stood, panting and dripping, and looking at each other for some
moments. Then I said, as I pulled on my boots--
"Well, young lady, you seem to have had something of a swim. Where did
you go into the water, and what on earth made you venture out so far,
may I ask?"
She explained that she was staying at a seaside camp whose tents were
pitched just beyond a few rocks a little way further on. The water was
sheltered there, and there was no difficulty in getting a smooth swim.
But she had somehow got too far to the right, and just as she was
turning to come in again, she had seen the triangular fin of a shark
cleaving the surface at no great distance, and coming towards her--then
another, much nearer. This, together with the knowledge of the distance
necessary to return, unless she could try to land through the surf, had
unnerved and flurried her, resulting in exhaustion.
"Well, I believe it's jolly lucky for you I happened to be at hand," I
said reprovingly. "Now, don't you go running any such silly risks
again, or you may not get off so easily. You'd better cut back now, and
get dressed, or you'll catch cold."
"No fear. The sun's much too hot for that," she answered, laughing up
into my face.
She was, as I have said, a pretty child, with large blue eyes and a
clear skin somewhat sun-tanned. She had a pretty voice too, and spoke
with a peculiar intonation, not unpleasing, and a little way of dipping
the letter "r" where it occurred to end a word--which I afterwards found
was the prevailing method of speech among most of those born in the Cape
Colony.
I picked up my hat and coat intending to see her safely, at any rate
until within sight of her people.
"What's your name?" I said, as we walked along, at first in silence.
"Iris."
"Iris--what?"
But before she could answer, two girls appeared round the pile of rocks,
which we had nearly gained. They looked startled at seeing me, then
scared, and no doubt I looked a little wild, for a rational white man
walking along the beach in soaked and dripping clothes was not an
everyday object. Then they advanced shyly and somewhat awkwardly, and
it occurred to me that they did not look quite the equals in the social
scale of my little friend.
The latter whispered to me, hurriedly and concernedly.
"Don't tell them anything about me--about finding me as you did. I
shall never be allowed to go into the water again. Don't tell them.
Promise you won't."
What could I do but give the required promise? Then the little one,
with a hurried good-bye, skipped off to join the two, who were awaiting
her--rather awkwardly--at a little distance off.
"Ungrateful little animal!" I thought to myself. "She would never have
seen land again but for me--that's as certain as that she's on it now."
Child-like, her first thought had been for herself--smothering even the
barest expression of thanks. I did not want to be thanked for saving
her little life, still I thought she might have shown a trifle more
appreciation, child though she was. And as I wended my way back, my
clothes fast drying on me under the powerful rays of the midday sun,
another and a meaner thought struck me, begotten, I hope, of my lonely
and forlorn condition. I did not want gratitude; still, the incident
might have availed to make me friends of some sort in this strange and
far away land, and of such I had none.
In a state of corresponding depression, I sat down to dinner. There
were two other men present, rough specimens of the small agricultural
class, who performed marvellous feats of attempted knife swallowing; and
as I divided my energies between keeping off the swarming flies and
taking in the necessary sustenance, I began to wonder what on earth I
should do to get a living until the two months necessary to hear from
England had elapsed. Indeed, I began almost to regret my steady refusal
of Captain Morrissey's proffered loan; for that prince of good fellows
had been really hurt because I had refused to borrow a ten pound note
from him--which, he said, was most of what he had with him; but what did
he want with money anyhow then, he urged, being on board ship all the
time?
"Say, mister!" said a voice in my ear, accompanied by a
characteristically familiar touch on the shoulder. "There's a gentleman
asking for you."
I looked up and beheld the frowzy, perspiring barkeeper, in his usual
shirt-sleeves. A visitor for me? Why, Morrissey, of course--or was it
the bank manager come to say he had thought better of his refusal, and I
could open an account within modest limits right there? The grimy
barkeeper seemed as an angel with a message as I followed him somewhat
hastily to the front room. Then disappointment awaited. The room
contained neither of these, but one stranger, and him I didn't know from
Adam.