CHAPTER VIII
THE FIGHT IN THE BOAT
When the Bobbsey twins first saw the small boat, and the fishermen in ittrying to beat off the shark that was trying to get at them, the steamerwas quite a little distance off. The big vessel, though, was headedtoward the fishing boat and soon came close enough for the passengers tosee plainly what was going on. That is, they could not see the sharkvery plainly, for it was mostly under water, but they could see a long,black shape, with big fins and a large tail, and the tail was lashing upand down, making foam on the waves.
"Hi!" cried Freddie in great excitement. "That's better'n a shipwreck,isn't it?"
"Almost as _bad_, I should say," remarked Mr. Bobbsey, who, with hiswife and other passengers, stood near the rail with the childrenwatching the ocean fight.
"The captain ought to stop the ship and go to the rescue of thosefishermen," said the man who had told Freddie not to get in theventilator pipe again. "I guess the shark is bigger than those menthought when they tried to kill it."
"Is that what they are trying to do?" asked Bert.
"It looks so," replied his father. "Sometimes the fishermen catch ashark in their nets, and they kill it then, as sharks tear the nets, oreat up the fish in them. But I guess this is a larger shark than usual."
"And is it going to sink the boat?" Nan wanted to know.
"That I can't say," Mr. Bobbsey replied. "Perhaps the fishermen caughtthe shark on a big hook and line, and want to get it into the boat tobring it to shore. Or maybe the shark is tangled in their net and istrying to get loose. Perhaps it thinks the boat is a big whale, or otherfish, and it wants to fight."
"Whatever it is, those fishermen are having a hard time," said anotherpassenger; and this seemed to be so, for, just as soon as the steamercame close enough to the small boat, some of the men in it waved theirhands and shouted. All they said could not be heard, because of thenoise made by the steamer, but a man near Mrs. Bobbsey said he heard thefisherman cry:
"Come and help us!"
"The captain ought to go to their help," said Flossie's mother. "It mustbe terrible to have to fight a big shark in a small boat."
"I guess we are going to rescue them," observed Bert. "Hark! There goesthe whistle! And that bell means stop the engines!"
The blowing of a whistle and the ringing of a bell sounded even as hespoke, and the steamer began to move slowly.
Then a mate, or one of the captain's helpers, came running along thedeck with some sailors. They began to lower one of the lifeboats, andthe Bobbsey twins and the other passengers watched them eagerly. Out onthe sea, which, luckily, was not rough, the men in the small boat werestill fighting the shark.
"Are you going to help them?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of the mate who got intothe boat with the sailors.
"Yes, I guess they are in trouble with a big shark, or maybe there aretwo of them. We'll help them kill the big fish."
When the mate and the sailors were in the boat it was let down over theside of the ship to the water by long ropes. Then the sailors rowedtoward the fishermen.
Anxiously the Bobbsey twins and the others watched to see what wouldhappen. Over the waves went the rescuing boat, and when it got nearenough the men in it, with long, sharp poles, with axes and with guns,began to help fight the shark. The waters foamed and bubbled, and themen in the boats shouted:
"There goes one!" came a call after a while, and, for a moment,something long and black seemed to stick up into the air.
"It's a shark!" cried Bert. "I can tell by his pointed nose. Lots ofsharks have long, pointed noses, and that's one!"
"Yes, I guess it is," his father said.
"Then there must be two sharks," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "for the men arestill fighting something in the water."
"Yes, they certainly are," her husband replied. "The fishermen must havecaught one shark, and its mate came to help in the fight. Look, thefishing boat nearly went over that time!"
That really came near happening. One of the big fish, after it foundthat its mate had been killed, seemed to get desperate. It rushed at thefishermen's boat and struck it with its head, sending it far over on oneside.
Then the men from the steamer's boat fired some bullets from a gun intothe second shark and killed it so that it sank. The waters grew quietand the boats were no longer in danger.
The mate and the sailors from the steamer stayed near the fishing boat alittle while longer, the men talking among themselves, and then thesailors rowed back, and were hoisted upon deck in their craft.
"Tell us what happened!" cried Mr. Bobbsey.
"It was sharks," answered the mate. "The fishermen came out here to lifttheir lobster pots, which had drifted a long way from shore. While theywere doing this one of them baited a big hook with a piece of pork andthrew it overboard, for he had seen some sharks about. A shark bit onthe hook and then rammed the boat.
"Then another shark came along and both of them fought the fishermen,who might have been drowned if we had not helped them kill the sharks.But they are all right now--the fishermen, I mean--for the sharks aredead and on the bottom of the ocean by this time."
"Were they big sharks?" asked Bert.
"Quite large," the mate answered. "One was almost as long as the fishingboat, and they were both very ugly. It isn't often that such big sharkscome up this far north, but I suppose they were hungry and that madethem bold."
"I'm glad I wasn't in that boat," said Nan.
"Indeed we all may well be glad," Mrs. Bobbsey said.
"Will those fishermen have to row all the way to shore?" asked Freddie,looking across the waters. No land was in sight.
"No, they don't have to row," said the mate of the steamer. "They have alittle gasolene engine in their boat, and the land is not so far away asit seems, only five or six miles. They can get in all right if no moresharks come after them, and I don't believe any will."
The fishermen waved their hands to the passengers on the steamer, andthe Bobbsey twins and the others waved back.
"Good-bye!" shouted the children, as loudly as they could. Whether theothers heard them or not was not certain, but they continued to wavetheir hands.
It took some time to hoist the lifeboat up in its place on the steamer,and in this Freddie and the others were quite interested.
"I'd like to own a boat like that myself," said the little boy.
"What would you do with it?" questioned Flossie.
"Oh, I'd have a whole lot of fun," was the ready answer.
"Would you give me a ride?"
"Of course I would!"
At last the lifeboat was put in its proper place, and then the steamerstarted off again.
The Bobbsey twins had plenty to talk about now, and so did the otherpassengers. It was not often they witnessed a rescue of that kind atsea, and Bert, who, like Freddie, had been hoping he might sight ashipwreck--that is, he wished it if no one would be drowned--was quitesatisfied with the excitement of the sharks.
"Only I wish they could have brought one over closer, so we could haveseen how big it was," he said.
"I don't," remarked Nan. "I don't like sharks."
"Not even when they're dead and can't hurt you?" asked Bert.
"Not even any time," Nan said. "I don't like sharks."
"Neither do I," said Flossie.
"Well, I'd like to see one if daddy would take hold of my hand," put inFreddie. "Then I wouldn't be afraid."
"Maybe there'll be sharks when we get to Cousin Jasper's house," saidFlossie.
"His house isn't in the ocean, and sharks is only in the ocean,"declared Freddie.
"Well, maybe his house is _near_ the ocean," went on the little "fatfairy."
"Cousin Jasper is in the hospital," Nan remarked; "and I guess theydon't have any sharks there."
"Maybe they have alligators," added Bert with a smile.
"Really?" asked Nan.
"Well, you know Florida is where they have lots of alligators," went onher older brother. "And we're g
oing to Florida."
"I don't like alligators any more than I like sharks," Nan said, with alittle shivery sort of shake. "I just like dogs and cats and chickens."
"And goats," said Flossie. "You like goats, don't you, Nan?"
"Yes, I like the kind of a goat we had when we went to BlueberryIsland," agreed Nan. "But look! What are the sailors doing?"
She pointed to some of the men from the ship, who were going about thedecks, picking up chairs and lashing fast, with ropes, things that mightroll or slide about.
"Maybe we're almost there, and we're getting ready to land," saidFreddie.
"No, we've got another night to stay on the ship," Bert said. "I'm goingto ask one of the men." And he did, inquiring what the reason was forpicking up the chairs and tying fast so many things.
"The captain thinks we're going to run into a storm," answered thesailor, "and we're getting ready for it."
"Will it be very bad?" asked Nan, who did not like storms.
"Well, it's likely to be a hard one, little Miss," the sailor said. "Wewill soon be off Cape Hatteras, and the storms there are fiercesometimes. So we're making everything snug to get ready for the blow.But don't be afraid. This is a strong ship."
However, as the Bobbsey twins saw the sailors making fast everything,and lashing loose awnings and ropes, and as they saw the sky beginningto get dark, though it was not yet night, they were all a littlefrightened.