The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-06

80 w ne u pitch II piece or pork
halleu TO barrel stave. Its jaws would
ciasn on 1t like bear trap, and the
Old fellow would chuckle horribly and
say wait till ye get absent-minded
some time down below and move your
arm too sudden. You'll find that every
thlng that moves quick is pork to him.
Ihen the next time the brute came
near me l would sit all hunched to-
gether, and as 1 felt him nose me- now
TINS side, now that l quaked as if
from squirt of icy water Once he
brushed me with his elephants ear of
forward fin and rolled his great
glrth against me as he turned. 1 stiff
tened out with a jerk that almost split
me off the sings.
We'll, that sort of thing couldn't go
on and it didn't, but the end of it
came from direction and with
suddenness 1 hadn't had any hope of
AS you may know, a good many Key
West spongers, when regular business
is slack, do a little tiger killing For
a sharks about half liver, and it tries
out gallons to a Gods gills, though of
course, the quality's inferior. Now, it
seemed the Batabano people were in
the habit of doing some occasional
Shaking, too.
"One night, when we'd been singing,
their captain turned to me and asked
l. L u.
What did he do then but offer me the
use of his harpoon and line and 81 for
my time If I'd get him my man eater.
L accepted the offer quickly enough and
the ether men were keen for the sport
EARLY the next morning the spongers
brought over their line. There was a
hundred fathoms of it with a six-foot
snood of steel chain and a regular
old-time blubber spade of harpoon
The men rugged the small windlass for
a reel, and l had them set it well up
in the bow, figuring to avoid fouled
lines. Then | put on extra weight for
my idea after making my strike was
to drop from the sings like a plumb,
and then lie low on bottom. I started
down in a sort of joyous excitement.
Il hadn't much more than laid the
iron down beside me and got to work
when my groper chickens melted
out of sight. I felt the water push
against my back, and 1 knew the brute
was once more behind me.
Il turned, but gradually as a jack
screw. His great torpedo shaped head
hung well within reach If 1 could
get him through that pulpy mackerel
crownl But he suddenly drew back. l
saw l would have to do some shadow
catching. The excitement made
me cool. He hove to, and began to
throw his lazy curves about me. That
gave me broadside chances but
wouldn't take them Then, seeming
ly without the slightest fear, he turn
ed and came straight in on me.
Il threw up the iron. His vicious
! bOttlegreen eyes caught the quick
movement with one hungry flash, and
| the next moment the huge curve of
muddy white was whirling over and at
me!
Il struck wildly just below the
| spreading reef of jaws, and threw my
self off the sings with an unnerved
yell of terror that roared and doomed
| about my helmet as l went the TWEEN
| ty feet to the bottom. Then l flatten-
ed myself beside a big firkin-like log
I ger-head' sponge and lay gasping.
THE Nantucket Shaking boats are
not only built solid as ice crushers,
but are covered with heavy steel wire
meshing as well. For even the six
and eight-foot wolves they go after
! will often turn when struck and try
to tear the little craft to pieces in their
| fury. If I'd known that then, I'd
have eaten and slept with all the I'll
! gers in the Caribbean before / tried
| any under-sea happening.
II could feel something saving and
| chopping at my hose and line, and fear
| alone forced me to turn over and see
what it 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 l could take in the situation
with horrible clearness.
Il had simply set the brute mad
with rage, and not having me to vent
it on he had flung himself at the
| sings. The hanging stage was already
| jerking about in ragged splinters and
as he leaped and twisted and doubled,
his jaws caught and gnashed it
| through again and again. Then he
threw himself against the side of the
Belle, ripping and striking and pitch
| ing about like twenty rabid panthers.
When he let his tail go 1t was like a
bunch of elastic thick as a tree loosed
off at full stretch. He struck faster
than a thrasher can use a fail.
II hope 1 may never again have
such feeling as / had during those
minutes. 1t seemed nothing but a
choice of deaths. AT any moment he
might see me hiding, yet if I 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. If my air
shoes couldn't be shorn through by
mower knives more easily. l lay and
waited.
w men ne llT6u lOf d u AdSIl-@
ing out at the Belle and the tangled
wreck of the sings, he 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 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 it al
most twisted me from my loggerhead.
And then he was back at the sings
and tackle again. l lost all sense so
completely that I got to talking to
myself, like a surgeon to child.
Il 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 a moment L
felt he was looking for me, and with
terror of it my breath came sucking
in through my teeth like a whiting
safety valve.
1T ended as suddenly as it began. In
one of his doublings the brute got his
tail round the harpoon line, exactly
as a sailor kinks his leg around
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 a tooth
on a string. Probably it had done
no serious harm to that eighteen feet
of gristle.
For a moment he hung there, vi
L