San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-05-26

''In the midst Of ttSk exhilarating
spurt l pulled up sudde1E.
"As if it had Instantly paterialized
from the sea water, l was Mce to face
with a gigantic shark. l quickly re-
membered, however, that while naked
native divers are occasionally devoured
by these demons of the deep, they
never attack the armored diver.
Indeed! l fancy now that the shark
was quite as startled as the diver, for
after a second he wheeled and glided
off to one side.
"As / started on once more ! was
stopped a second time, not by an OBJ
stacle before, but by a sharp pull pm
the air pipe behind my helmet, which
jerked me over sprawling on my back
MY first thought was that the shark
had attacked me in the rear, but ON
scrambling to my feet and facing about
1 saw that the air.pipe, which, in my
first sudden stop, had probably slack
ened till it lay oil the bottom, was ap-
parently caught against some protrud-
ing object
81 fastened back TO release it, when,
to my surprise, l found it held fast be-
tween the shells of a giant clam.
II gave the stout wire-lined tubing a
twitch, then a strong pull, bracing my
feet against the great bivalve. Then
/ clutched the rims of the she'll and
strove to separat e them.
But the vise-like jaws were relent-
less. AS easily l might have rended
a granite ledge at some seam in its
center.
"Then l turned to the lifeline to sig
nal the tender in the boat. AS I did SO
l saw that 1t, too, had become slack,
and was tangled in a branching coral.
1 dashed forward to disengage it, but
before Preached it l was again twitched
backward by the air-pipe.
"Then, for the first time, / realized
the full significance of the situation.
My air supply was stopped, communi-
cation with the upper world cut off,
and /, Jack ~Ballantine, in all the vigor
of young manhood, chained to my
death at the bottom of Torres strait.
And now a sudden sense of suffoca-
ton warned me that my struggle was
limited to seconds.
I'm a flash of memory | recalled the
tale of one like disaster, where the
diver cut his air-tube with a dash freed
his lifeline, and was drawn up half
dead. But had no knife; in that sud-
den backward fall | had lost hold of it.
Then, as l lifted my eyes in o last
despairing search for succor. | beheld,
resting in the branching coral before
me-and to this day I marvel at tho
miracle of tan iron bar, pointed at
one end-a veritable crowbar.
''In an instant l was prying at TIE
jaws of the giant clam, with the lever
age of the bar and the strength of des-
peration. For a suffocating moment
the struggle was unava ling, then
rim split away and the pipe was free.
Il turned toward the lifeline, stag
gered and fell across it, insensibfe!
II suppxpe the weight of my falling
body gave the line the one jerk which
was the signal to the tender to pull
up Anyway, the tender got the sig
nal, and the next l knew l was lying
or the deck of the lugger, the old Nam
tucketer on his knees at my side, and
all the scared crew standing about"
Truly a most extraordinary tale, as
well as a terrible experience" I ex-
claimed, as Ballantine ended his story,
and the waiter brought on the dessert.
That crowbar, for instance, is a strain
on BR everyday businessman's creduli-
ty," and 1 looked past my friends face
tQthe bronze face Of Franklin across
the street .
AND yet i Is only another instance
of truth stranger than fiction" assert
ed Ballantine. why, the first time
the old Nantusketsr I have mentioned
vent down, on recovering from the
daze OF sudden descent, he saw in a
crotch of the coral before him a bottle
of pale ale, and if a beer, why not a