The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1895-06-15
lin tho midst Of this exhilaratinr
'purt pulled up suddenly.


squirt pulled up suddenly.
| LAS IT 1t had Instantly materialize,
from the sea water, 1 was face tc fac.
with gigantic shark. 1 quickly re
membered, however, that while nake<
native divers are occasionally dev cure.
| never q tack the armored diver.
"1ndeed! / fancy now that the sharl
was quite as startled Us the diver, fo
| after a second he wheeled and rlidet
off to one side.
"As started on once more I wa.
stopped second time. not by an oil,
stacle before, but by a sharp pull or
the air pipe behind my helmet, which
5crlkcd me over sprawling on my back
my first thought was that the shark
had attacked me In the rear. but or
scrambling to my feet and facing about
saw that the air-pipe, which, in my
first sudden stop, had probably slack
ened till it lay on the bottom, was az,
parently caught against some protrud.
| ing object
II hastened back t. release it, vl,cn h,
to my surprise. found it held fast he
tween the shells of a giant clam.
II gave the stout wire-lined tubing q
witch. then strong pull. bracing my
feet against the great bivalve.- Then
I clutched the rims of the shell an
strove to separat them.
But the vise-lil<e jaws were relent-
less AS easily 1 might have rended
n granite ledge at some seam in it's
center.
''Then I turned to the lifeline to sig
nal the tender in the boat. AS 1 did SO
l saw that it. too, had become slack.
and was tangled IN a branching coral.
dashed forward to diseneage it, but
before reached it was again tvvitchcd
backward by the air-pipe.
Then, for the first time, I realized
the full Significance Of the situation
My air supply was stopped, commune
and 1, jock Bal1antine, in all the visoD
OF young manhood, chained to my
death at the bottom of Torres strait.
"A nd now a sudden sense of suHoca-
ton warned me that my struggle was
limited to seconds.
In a flash of memory I recalled the
tale of one like disaster, wherc tho
diver cnt his air-tnbe 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 1 lifted my eyes in last
despairing search for succor, beheld,
resting in the branching coral before
me-and to this day 1 marvel ut the
miracle of tan iron bar, pointed a..
one end-a veritable crowbar.
I'm an instant was prying at tie
jaws of tho giant clam, with the lever.
age of the bar and the strength of des-
peration. For a euffocating moment
the struggle was unava ling, then one
rim split away and the pipe was fee.
II turned toward the lifeline, stag
gered and fell across it, inscnsih1e!
II suppose the weight of my falling
body gave tho line the one jerk which |
was the signal to the tender to pull |
up Anyway. the tender got the sig
nal. and the next I knew I was lying !
on the deck of the lugger, the old Nam |
tucketer on his knees at my side, and |
al the scared crew standing about"
Truly a most extraordinary tale Us !
we'll as terrible experience I ex- !
as Ballantine ended his story, |
and the waiter brought on the desse1t |
That crowbar, for instance, is a strain |
On an everyday businessman's creduli-
w." and looked past my friends face
% the bronze face of Franklin across
The street
''And yet it is only another instance
If truth stranger than felton," assert
ID Ballantine. ''Why, the first time
The old Nantucketer have mentioned
vent down, on recovering from the
1aze of sudden descent, he saw in a
crotch of the coral before him a bottle
# pale ale, and If beer, why not q
rowbar?"-Boston Globe.