Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1891-09-18


for fully half an hour sitter that Thu
nimble little sloop ran. end reached
and luffed. and came about. and jibed,
and spun around like crazy thing. and
all the while old Capt. Joel said never
a word. He was kept nearly as busy
as ! was, for it is no small task to keen
q sloop dancing about on the water like
q monkey on a hot brick. The old man
was perspiring freely. but he worked
to perfection He knew rs well as
did what to do. and when | gave an or
der he was already to obey it instantly
He could have done it all without an
order. but on board ship nothing is
done without instructions from the
man in charge
What do You take this ere sloop
for, anyway; . top?" he grumbled, -
he filed away for the twentieth time.
Been a dancin' about like o looney for
the past half hour" ! knew by this
that he was warming up to the excite
ment of the occasion. His sullen and
resentful feelings had oozed out Of him
IS he began to perspire over his work.
At the end of three-quarters Of an
hour was about to give up the fight
a. hopeless, but ! resolved to keep it
up until ] fairly droppe! down from
sheer WEAKNESS. ! never had been So
completely tired out in AL my life. The
shark was altogether too heavy for
this sort of fishing 4 smaller shark
would have been sport, but this was
time, however. noticed that the big
fellow on the end of the line was be-
coming less ugly and energetic. He
made dash now and then, but he did
not keep it up. By degrees reeled
him in toward the boat did it all
very slowly and cautiously. for did
not wish him to make a particularly
desperate break for liberty and get
away from me. felt that had not
enough strength left to resist him
After some trouble got him within
q short distance of the boat
stand by with the lance, Cap'n
JOEL" said l. The old man dropped
the tiller and took up lance made of
bayonet fastened 10 the end of a
bamboo fishing-rod He knelt on the
deck beside me, with the lance poised
over the water and with his toes braced
against the standing rigging. gently
coaxed the shark alongside directly
under u.s.
''Stab him." said l, and almost be-
fore the sound of the words had died
away the keen bayonet had flashed in
to the sharks head and out again
twice. The third stab went into the
water, for the shark
thrashed the water into foam with his
great tail and tore of across the bay
The reel screamed again and again as
the wounded thing, crazed with pain
and rage, darted here and there.
W herever he rushed he left a thin trail
Of blood Although was no longer
SO heavily oppressed with WEAKNESS
took my time about checking him, for
I knew that ! had him then.
When the wild creatures fury was
spent reeled him in again to the boat
He was weak, but still game to the
last. Capt Joel stabbed him four times,
but even with that the fish made des-
perate struggle for life. Capt Joel
put q moose around under his forward
fins, and we hauled him aboard by
means Of tackle already prepared for
that purpose. We let him hang in the
rigging while we bore away for home.
When l was rested bit started to
measure him with tape line. As I
fused about him he made a lurch and
gave q vicious snap with his ugly jaws
that caused me to fall headlong on the
cabin roof His razor-like teeth missed
my left arm by barely six inches. Old
Cap'n Joel grinned like a fiend and
to himself all the way home
1t must have been the sharks last
death spasm, for when took the lance
and prodded him with it he made no
further demonstration. He was dead
beyond all recall
On the way home put the tape line
on him. found that he was a little
more than five feet long. This is not
large for q man-eater; in fact it was
merely an ordinary sort Of Great South
bay shark. While was cutting of a
I'm he slipped out Of the moose and fell
and that was the last we
saw of him. He might have been a
man-eater for all that could tell to the
contrary. If he were not, it was solely
lack OF proper opportunity
N. ". Times