FISHING FOR SHARKS.
In strolling along the outer beach, picking up curious sponges and bits
of coral, the attention of the boys was also attracted to the shadowy
forms of great fish that they could distinguish every now and then
darting along the green base of the combers just before they broke.
"Do you think they can be sharks?" asked Worth.
"Yes," replied Sumner; "I am almost sure they are."
"My! but I wish we could catch one! I have never seen a shark out of
water."
"I shouldn't wonder if we could. I've got a shark-hook in the _Psyche_,
and our Manila cables, knotted together, will make just the kind of
line we want."
Fifteen minutes later the hook and line had been prepared. For bait,
they took one of a number of fish that Quorum had caught that morning.
The shark-hook was a huge affair, over a foot long and made of steel a
quarter of an inch thick. To it was attached by a swivel several feet
of chain terminating in a ring to which the line was made fast.
Sumner had caught many sharks off Key West wharves, but they had been
comparatively small, and with the monsters of the reef he had hitherto
had no dealings. Consequently, he was almost as ignorant of their
strength as was Worth. Therefore, without reflecting on the folly of
the act, and fearing that the line might be jerked from his hands, he
made its inner end fast about his waist.
Then whirling the heavy hook above his head, he cast it far out in the
breakers. Within a minute it was tossed back to the beach, and had to
be thrown again. This operation was repeated so many times without any
result that the boys were beginning to tire of it, when all at once
there came a jerk on the line that nearly threw Sumner off his feet.
"Hurrah!" he cried. "We've got him at last! Catch hold, Worth, and help
me haul him in."
But it was soon evident that instead of their catching the shark, he
had caught them. In spite of all their efforts, and no matter how
deeply they dug their feet into the sand, the boys found themselves
being dragged slowly but surely towards the water. At first they did
not realize their danger; but when they were within a few yards of the
creamy froth churned up by the breakers, it flashed over them, and they
began to utter those shouts for help that attracted the attention of
their companions in the camp.
Although Worth could have let go of the line at any minute, the thought
of doing such a thing never entered his head. Even when the water was
about his feet and the wet sand was slipping rapidly from beneath them,
the plucky little chap held on and struggled with all his might to
avert the fate that threatened his friend.
They were nearly hopeless before the three men reached them, and,
rushing into the water, seized the line with such a powerful grasp that
its seaward motion was instantly arrested. Not only that, but they
walked away with it so easily that a minute later the shark was landed
high and dry on the beach, where the sailor despatched it with an axe.
It was a white shark of moderate size, being not more than seven or
eight feet long. For all that, it was a monster as compared with those
Sumner had been in the habit of catching, and he gazed with a curious
sensation at its wicked eyes, and the row upon row of curved gleaming
teeth with which the gaping mouth was provided.
"It was a close call for you, my boy," said the Lieutenant, gravely,
"and has taught you a lesson that I am sure you will never forget.
You may thank your lucky stars that the hook was taken by this little
fellow instead of by one of his grandfathers or uncles. Now that we
have started in this business, I am going to try and show you what
might have happened."
Under his direction a hole some five feet deep was dug, a heavy timber,
selected from those with which the beach was strewn, was thrust into
it, and the sand was repacked solidly about it. To this, instead of
to Sumner's body, the end of the line was attached, and the fishing
for sharks was resumed. While the post was being set, Lieutenant Carey
brought his rifle from the camp. Several sharks, some smaller and some
larger than the first, were caught; but not until the hook was seized
by one that dragged the entire party clinging to it slowly down the
beach did the Lieutenant express himself as satisfied.
"Hold on to it!" he cried. "Brace yourselves! Snub him all you can!"
The strain on the line was tremendous, and it hummed like a harpstring.
But for the post to aid them, they must have let go. At length,
even the enormous strength at the other end of the line began to be
exhausted. Foot by foot the slack was gathered in and held at the
post. Then a great ugly-looking head could be seen in the edge of the
breakers, and the next minute a rifle-ball crashed into it.
In the flurry that followed the line snapped, and the boys uttered a
cry of dismay. But the bullet had done its work, and a few minutes
later the huge carcass was rolling like a log in the surf. The sailor
managed to get a bight of the line over its tail, and by their united
efforts the great fish was drawn partly from the water; but beyond
there they could not move it. It was nearly fifteen feet long, and
Sumner shuddered as he realized how easily and quickly such a monster
as that could have dragged him out to sea.
"It seems to me," said Worth, "that some kinds of fishing are as
dangerous as deer-hunting, and just as exciting."
While they were still looking at the big shark their attention was
attracted to a loud barking in the beach scrub behind them, and by
a man's voice shouting: "Wus-le! Wus-le! You, sir! Come here!" It
was evident that Wus-le was a dog, and that he was engaged in some
absorbing occupation that forbade him to pay any attention to the calls
of his unseen master.
Going to the place from which the barking came, the shark-fishers
were in time to witness a most interesting performance. A small
brindled bull-terrier was tearing in a circle round and round a
coiled rattlesnake. The former was barking furiously, and the sound
so enraged the snake that the angry whir-r-r-r of its rattles was
almost continuous. At the same time it was dazed by the rapidity of
the dog's motions. At length it sprang forward, struck viciously, and
missed its mark. At the same moment the dog dashed in, seized the snake
by the back, gave one furious shake, and jumped away. The snake was
evidently injured, for it re-coiled slowly. Once more, enraged beyond
endurance, it struck at its agile adversary, and then the dog had him.
In an instant the snake's back was broken, and a minute later it lay
motionless and dead.
As soon as he was certain of his victory, the dog paid no more
attention to his late enemy, but with panting breath and lolling tongue
that betrayed the energy of his recent exertions, he ran to meet his
master, who appeared at that moment from the direction of the river.
He was a powerfully built man, dressed partly as a hunter and partly
as a sailor. He carried a rifle, and introduced himself as the keeper
of the house of refuge a few miles up the coast. He upbraided the dog
as though it were a human being for tackling a rattlesnake, and then
remarked apologetically to the spectators of the recent fight: "I have
to scold him on general principles, but it don't do any good. He is
bound to fight and kill snakes till they kill him, which I am always
expecting they will. They haven't done it yet, though, and he has
killed more than twenty rattlers, besides more of other kinds than I
can count. He's a good dog, Wus-le is, and he's a terror to snakes."
The man said he had learned of the Lieutenant and his companions being
in the river from the mail-carrier, and, feeling lonely, had come to
invite them to go to the station and stay with him until the wind
changed. As he assured them that this was not likely to happen for
several days, and as they were ahead of the time set for their arrival
at Cape Florida, Lieutenant Carey accepted the invitation.
On their way up the river their guide pointed out a grove of cocoanut
palms, marking the site of a fort erected during the Seminole War, the
name of which was at one time familiar to all Americans. It was the
scene of the treacherous seizure of the famous chief Osceola, who was
lured into it under the pretence of considering a treaty. From there
he was hurried to Fort Moultrie, in Charleston Harbor, where he soon
afterwards died of a broken heart.
They found the station to be a low, roomy structure, surrounded by
broad piazzas, built in the most solid manner so as to withstand
hurricanes. It stood on top of the beach ridge, and commanded a
glorious view of the ocean, as well as of the low-lying back country.
At one end was a small separate house containing a great cistern,
in which a supply of water was collected during the rainy season of
summer, to last through the long winter drought. At the opposite end
stood a building in which was kept a metallic life-boat and a quantity
of canned provisions for the use of sailors who might be wrecked on
that lonely coast.
Here the exploring party remained for nearly a week, while the wind
still held steadily to the east, and they all declared it to be the
happiest and most interesting week of their cruise.
They hunted, fished, and sailed on the inland waters behind the beach
ridge to their hearts' content. Quorum was kept constantly busy cooking
on the station kitchen stove the venison, fish, turtle, ducks, quail,
'possum, and other food supplies with which the surrounding country
abounded.
Worth felt that his reputation as a hunter was fully restored when he
shot a wild-cat that Wus-le had treed, and Sumner was more than proud
over the killing of a black bear, which the same enterprising dog
discovered one night digging for turtle eggs on the beach but a short
distance from the station. The Lieutenant worked at the report of his
expedition, while the sailor and the keeper labored at the frame of a
light-draught, sea-going boat, which the latter wished to build for his
own use, and for which Sumner furnished the plans and model.
At length the wind, which in that country always boxes the compass,
worked around to the westward, and as it was the end of March, the
canoes were again loaded, and the pleasant life at the station came to
an end.