The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1902-06-11

and slept with all the tigers in the
Caribbean before | tried any under-sea
iiarpooning.
II could feel something saving and
chopping at my hose and line, and fear
alone forced me to turn over and see
what II 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.
81 had simply set the brute mad with
rage, and not having me to vent II on,
he had flung himself at the slings.
The hanging stage was already Jerking
about in ragged splinters. and as he
leaped and twiste1 and doubled, his
jaws caught and gnashed 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, II was like bunch of elias
tic thick as tree loosed off at full
stretch. He struck faster than
tllrasher can use q fail.
81 hope | may never again have such
feelings as | had during those min
rtes. II seemed nothing but a choice
Of deaths. At any moment he might
see me hiding. yet II ] slipped my
weights and tried q rush for the top
he would surely pounce on me. II 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
wreck of the sings, ne drew off. saw
agely. 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-anj they
shouldn't have let him have a fathom
Of it-he suddenly stopped dead and
like a cracking whip, with one plunge
flung free again.
The lift of the water from II al
most twisted me from my loggerhead.
And then ne was back at the slings
and tackle again. l lost all sense so
completely that | got to talking to
myself. like a surgeon to a child.
II found out later that my tenders
sent down one signal after another:
never 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 whiffling
safety-valve.
1T ended as suddenly as It began.
In one of his doublings the brute got
Lis tail round the harpoon line, exact
ly as sailor kinks his leg round n
rope he's sliding down. And when.
the next moment, he stiffened out
again with the rebound of a sprung
bow, the iron came away like tooth
on string. Probably II mad done no
serious harm to that 18 feet of gristle.
For moment he hung there. vi
cious and uncertain. and then sullenly
moved away through the shadow and
out to sea. | never saw him again.
"The color of my hair didn't do any
lightning changing in that quarter of
en hour; they pulled me up as red
headed as ever. But | reckon, none
the less. that got considerably older
IN wisdom. Since then, when I've
been scared, I've generally been honest
enough to own it, and when I've felt
that | really had to go looking for
trouble-well, I've always had better
sense than to seek it with harpoon
in the under-sea. Youths Compan-
ion.