The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-08-23

| and slept with all the tigers IN Cns
Caribbean before tried any under-sea
happening.
Il could feel something saving and
chopping at my hose and line, and fear
alone forced me to turn over and see
what 1t was. The water above me
was in one swirling draw and surge,
like the double maelstrom whirl from
the screws of an ocean steamer; but
there was little sand to rise from bot
tom, and | could take in the situation
with horrible clearness.
Il had simply set the brute mad with
rage, and not having me to vent 1t on.
be had flung himself at the sings.
The hanging stage was already jerking
about In ragged splinters, and as he
lsape.l and twiste! and doubled, his
jaws caught and CRASHED it through
again and again. Then he threw him
self against the side of the Belle. rip.
ping and striking and pitching about
IKE 20 rabid panthers. When he let
lis tail go, it was like bunch of elias
tic thick as tree loosed off at full
stretch. He struck faster than q
tirasher can use fail
II hope may never again have such
feelings a.; had during those min
utes. It seemed nothing but choice
Of deaths. At any moment ne might
see me hiding, yet if l slipped my
weights and tried rush for the top
he would surely pounce on me. If he
got his line round mine-going like a
shuttle as he was, too-that was only
another ending. II my air-hose once
fell across his teeth. an oat-straw
couldn't be shorn through my mower
knives any more easily. lay and
waited
when he tired for a minute of lash
ing out at the Belle and the tangled
ogely. throwing his head from side to
side and swapping his bear-trap jaws
at every jerk. Then he started to
whirl spindlewise; and when he'd
spun all the slack about him-and they
shouldn't have let him have fathom
Of THE suddenly stopped dead. and
like a cracking whip, with one plunge
flung free again.
'The lift of the water from it al
most twisted me from my loggerhead.
And then he was back at the sings
and tackle again. lost all sense so
completely that l got to talking to
myself. like surgeon to a child.
II found out later that my tenders
sent down one signal after another; l
rever took the first of them. Again
and again the shark came back and
when he was still for moment felt
he was looking for me; and with the
terror of it my breath came sucking
in through my teeth like a whiting
ut ended as suddenly as it began.
In one of his doublings the brute got
lis tail round the harpoon line. exact
~ as sailor kinks his leg round 4
rope he's sliding down. And when,
the next moment, he stiffened out
again with the rebound of a sprung
how, the iron came away like tooth
on string. Probably it had done no
serious harm to that Is feet of gristle.
For a moment he hung there, vi
oious and uncertain. and then sullenly |
moved away through the shadow and
out to sea. I never saw him again.
1.-THE color of my hair didn't do any |
lightning changing in that quarter of |
n hour; they pulled me up as red
headed as ever But I reckon, none !
he less. that got considerably older
II wisdom. Since then. when I've |
,ten scared, I've generally been honest |
,nough to own it, and when I've felt !!
lat l really bad to go looking for !
rouble-well, I've always had better
c nse than to seek 1t with a harpoon /
n the under-sea "-Youth's Compan-
on.