The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1896-01-11
A TRUTHFUL SAILOR.
RELATES THE EXPERIENCE IN WHICH
HE sWORE NEVER TO LIE.

mate-him that's rowing that zero cou-
pie out yonder. We were shipmates to-
gether aboard the Raiapootah India
man. His father, who is dead and gone
this 20 year or more, was carpenter
aboard Of her.
"Well, one day we were becalrned on
the line when, says young Bill-he was
young Bill then. him as | just pointed
out to you-says he. i shall have a
swim round for cooler, for, believe
me, the sun was that hot we had to
throw buckets Of water on the deck to
keep it from catching fire.
In fact, a pig we killed tho day
afore we hung aloft and roasted him in
the sun, catching the gravy in bucket,
and ne was done beautifully.
$50 in he goes head first, with his
clothes ON, and me and his old man
looked over the side just abaft tho fore
rigging TO see him come to the top OF
the water again.
"But no Bill could we Sec and in
stead Of him up camo tremendous
shark. with his sides sticking out as if
he had a cargo inside over and above
his regular bill Of lading.
at was then as clear TO us as the
nose on our faces that poor Bill had
dived clear down his throat.
''The poor old man had fit right
away, aud we carried him below and
put him in his hammock and then ran
up on deck again in the hope that we
should be able to catch the fellow.
But it was nowhere to DO seen, so
after watching some time to no pur-
pose we went down below to sec how
the old man was getting on, and to our
establishment and sorrow we found his
body nearly cold and as stiff as the fly
ing jibboom.
1--WE sewed him up in his hammock,
putting the grindstono that he used to
grind his tools with inside to make it
sink and laid the body on hatch, with
the union jack spread over it for pail
"Then the skipper read the funeral
service, all Of us standing round dread
fully cut up, me especially, for young
Bill was my messmate, and / was very
fond of the old man.
''As soon as the skipper had finished
the last words, which l shall never for
get, they was so solemn, the hatch was
tipped up, and overheard the body went
with splash, and all was over, at least
we thought SO.
But almost Immediately afterward
up comes another shark, bigger one,
it seemed, than the first.
The boatswain at once ran for the
shark hook and baitod it with a hunk of
pork and slung it over the stern, and ii
was not many minutes afore we had
him hooked and hauled ON deck.
''Well, the first thing we did was to
cut his tail off, for he was Tapping il
about so that it shook the ship from
stem to stern, that we were afraid it
would shake her to pieces
after we had done that we thought
we heard very strange noise inside of
nina sort of grating sound, like boat
being dragged over shingly beach.
$50 we set to and cut off his head
and then ripped him up, when, what
dye think? What should we see, to our
great establishment and delight, but Bill
and his father sitting upright like two
Jonahs, the yOungstor turning the grind
stone and the old man sharpening his
knife, intending to cut their way out OF
the creatures belly.
"You say l said tho old man was
dead? Please don't interrupt me- and
I'll tell you all about it.
There's no doubt but what he seem.
ed dead, but it was only his blood frozC
with horror, and the shark warmed him
to life again. What made him most un.
comfortable, Bill said, was the slip
peryness and topsy turvyness of the
place, for there was no rest at all, fol
one minute he was standing ON his
head and the next ON his feet, and ther
he would be tossed from one side to tn,
other, sometimes getting jammed be
tween the ribs, and he wondered tn,
meal didn' { disagree with the fish itself
"But at last came the climax, anC
Bill thought it was all over with him.
for down its throat was shot heav,
body like that Of n sack of coal righ
atop of him, nearly smothering him, Sc
that he had scarcely room TO move o.
| ultdlncs anu nc must nave uccu SUM
time insensible, he said, when he wa
woke up with loud report
"Ho thought for moment the crea
turo had swallowed a powder barrel an,
it had exploded, but il was only thu
bursting of the canvas shroud the oil,
man was sewed up in, which had blown
up like paper bag.
1.-The noise in its inside, Bill said
must have astonished the shark, for III
again found himself standing upon hi
head, SO he knew it was making for tn
surface, and ON reaching there il opene'
its enormous jaws for air, when a fioo'
OF light entered between the rows o
teeth which enabled Bill ON gaining hi
feet to take stock Of his lodgings, an,
the very first thing that he saw was hi
old father crawling out from under tn
canvas like a chick from its shell.
1.-The old man had caught sight o
the grindstono and soon put it int
working order. aud ON the fish one
more coming to the top and again ad
hitting light Bill at once saw wha
was in the wind, and they commences
business at once, when they were star
tied by sudden change in the shark
movements, and soon they distinctl
heard the sonnd of human voices, an