The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-05-20

I sang out: "Stop her |" and jumped
after him, and collared him inst as he
was sinking the second time. But what
will his weight and the rough sea, 1 had
to do all [ knew to keep ahoat; and by
the time they picked us up I'd swal-
lowed more salt water than all the grog
on board could ha' put away the taste of.
Well, Spiro was put into his hammock
and KEEP warm, but it was next morning
afore he cum straight again. The first
thing he axed was, who saved him2 And
when they told him it was me, he just
stared for a minute without sayin' nuth-
in, and then flew UP the ladder like
cat, came rushing up to where L was
standing, and threw himself down on his
knees, and took my hand and kissed it,
and cried like child.
cum precious nearpipin' my eye too,
1 can tell ye, to see so much natural
gratitude in a great hulkin' cut throat
like him. But the next minute he got
up and stood afore me, as tall and grand
as king. and looks me right in the face
and says:
Capitano" Che always called me
that; capitano, you know all. You
member dat block fall at your head de
oder night? I trowed it; and when it
no kill you, tink kill you wild dis knife.
See, you take de knife, drive it into my
heart-so" Che gave me the knife, and
stripped open his shirt }; "you hab re-
venge, and all done p
Talk of play the way the feller said
that and the way he stood waitin' for
the blow, never movin' muscle, beat
all the plays that ever was. said
nOthin' for minute-I couldn't ha'
spoke to save my life-and then I flung
the knife down on the deck, and says to
him:
"I won't touch hair o your head,
my brave fellow-only you be q good
boy, and don't let's have any more non
sense -
He gave my hand grip that made it
ache for whole day after, and away he
went ; and there Gas thought) was an
end of that. But it warn't an end of it,
neither.
Bout week after, we was lyin' at
Suez, takin' in cargo, and had pretty
nigh got it all aboard, when one arter-
noon took thought (the weather bein'
thunderin' hot) that L might as well have
bathe; and so I did-as jolly one as L
ever had yet. was just thinkin', after
paddlin' about for q quarter of an hour
or SO, that it was about time to be com
in out-when all to once atwixst me and
the ship, up rose a great, black, pointed
thing, that knew directly for the back
fin of shark.
warn't 'zactly frightened there amt
time for that in such scrapes; all the
fright comes after it's over-I just felt
my breath go for a minute, as if seme-
body had hit me in the wind; and then L
found myself wonderin' how the shark
'ud ketch hold O. me-lengthways or
sideways, or with my head right into his
mouth. 1 saw him lurch round, in the
water, ready for rush, with all his big
teeth grinnin'-and then suddenly there
was a splash and bubblin' and up rose
the shark a most upright in the water,
wrigglin' like a speared eel, and the
clear water around him turned dark with
blood; and then something gripped me
by the shoulder, and heard Spiro's
voice saying quite coolly: "All right,
capitano-he no hurt you now |"
The feller had actually dived under
the shark and cut q cash in him as big
as the mouth of a letter-box, with the
very same knife as he'd been a-goin' to
kill me with.
The shark wasn't quite dead, but he
was too hard hit to go far, and after
they picked us up, they settled him and
hauled him aboard; and I've got bit of
his backbone now, made into walking
stick.
Well, after that, Spiro and me was the
greatest chums goin, and when the poor
feller died of fever, about year after, 1
was as sorry as if it had been my own
brother. Just before he died he gave
me the knife, and this it is hangin' round
my neck now. So you see, let feller
be as black as the mouth of the funnel,
there may be good in him yet. And now
let's go up and see what kind O night
it is fore we turn in.