CHAPTER IX
THE BLACK FIN
The boys had fully intended removing their shoes and going ashore intheir bare feet, but as they started to do so, the men grinned andstopped them. Yorke, with his twisted mouth leering and his gray headstreaming with perspiration, lay on his oar and gave them some advice.
"Young gem'men, don't go for to do them foolish things, not in thesehere seas! First place, that 'ere sand on the island will be hotter'nblazes. Then if ye go wadin' around ye'll get poisoned wi' coral, orye'll step on little crabs ye can't see, but they'll get under yourskin, like; or else ye'll find animiles what'll bore little round holesin your flesh, an' them kind o' things. It ain't safe, young gem'men."
At first the boys thought he was joking, but a glance at old Bordenshowed that Yorke had been in earnest.
"Don't ye do it," added that soft-voiced seaman, who was so much likeJerry in his ways. "Yorke's tellin' ye true, lads. Things ain't so niceas they looks on these islands, you can take your davy to that!"
At this juncture Daily and Birch also paused to rest. The boys haddesisted from their object, and Birch spoke up, his one eye flamingqueerly.
"Beggin' your pardon, young sirs, but be you a-goin' to hunt tigers wi'the cap'n?" At the question all four men looked aft at the boys.
"Sure," rejoined Bob happily.
"Not right away, though," added Mart, wondering at the looks and thequestion. "We're goin' to see the diving first. Later on we'll go ashoreafter a tiger."
"Give way, there," ordered Borden quietly, but as the four oars dippedMart caught an odd glance exchanged among the men. He wondered idly whatthey were thinking of, but they were close on the island now and he wastoo eager to be ashore to waste any time in vain speculation.
At length the boat ran up on the clean white sand, all leaped out, andshe was at once pulled up. Dailey volunteered to stay with her, and theother three men started off to wander on their own account, while thetwo boys, arranging to be back in an hour or so, started across to theseaward side. The brief ride in the hot sun had quite cured Bob of hisromantic notions regarding the rifle, which he now left in the boat, forit was a heavy weight and he had lost his desire to shoot when Martsuggested that it would only alarm those aboard the yacht.
It was ebb tide, and as they gained the opposite side of the narrowisland and came out upon the long reaches of white sand, the wilddelight of the boys was unrestrained. They were in a new world. Even thetrees were crimson, there was no lack of wonderful but ill-smellingflowers, and among the bushes and trees fluttered butterflies ofgorgeous hues. But out on the sands they forgot all this.
They found shells by the score, such shells as they had never seen, ofall colors and hues. Then, in a little bay of the shore, Mart stumbledon a starfish, deep red, with rich black bosses, and Bob splashed into apool to extricate two small but very gaudy sponges.
Then there were smaller fragments of coral, ruby red and white, andoyster shells--some brick-red, others of mixed and more gorgeoushues--while more complex shells whose names the boys could not guess laystrewn about indiscriminately with fragments of streaming seaweed. ThenBob wandered ahead, and Mart saw him turn with a cautious gesture,motioning to him.
Mart stuffed the starfish into his pocket and caught up his all butforgotten camera. When he joined Bob at one side of the little bay andlooked through the bushes at the shore beyond, he understood. For therewas a long stretch of mingled coral and sand exposed by the low tide,and perhaps fifty yards distant were two birds--curlews--running towardthe boys with nervous, jerky motions. They were furtively picking upcrabs, and Mart quickly set up his camera and focused it. But theinstant he began to turn the crank, the two birds ceased their antics.With an inquiring pipe, they looked toward the slight click; then one ofthem desperately snatched up a crab and both flew off together.
"By golly!" exclaimed Mart. "I got 'em anyhow! Let's go see the crabs!"
They found them--big gray fellows that scuttled away or disappeared inthe sand as the boys approached. Try as they would they could not catchone, and being unable to dig, they finally gave up, tired and winded.
"Say, do you like raw oysters?" exclaimed Mart, while they were restingin the hot sand.
"You bet!" returned Bob. "Why?"
"Well, look out there where that coral shows."
Perhaps twenty feet from the edge of the water protruded the low raggededges of a coral reef, and Bob gained his feet instantly. The waterinside the reef was only a few inches deep, and even from where theystood they could make out splotches against the coral that told ofoysters.
Without a word Bob led the way, Mart following hastily. Getting theirshoes wet mattered little, for they would dry again in five minutes ofwalking in the blistering sand, and when they finally stood on the coralreef they soon had torn half a dozen good-sized oysters from their perchand waded in to shore again.
"They look good," said Mart, gazing doubtfully at the tightly-closedgray-green shells. "How you goin' to open 'em?"
"With a knife," grinned Bob, pulling out his heavy pocket-knife.
He went to work, and remained at work for five minutes. At the end ofthat time he gazed disgustedly at his hacked knife blade and gave up indespair. Mart suggested warming the oysters over a fire.
"Good idea, Mart!" cried Bob, springing up. "We'll eat a couple, thentake a mess back to dad, eh?"
They soon had a small fire of dry bush alight, and under the influenceof its heat they got two or three of the oysters open. Each of the boysswallowed one--then they looked at each other blankly.
"Didn't taste right to me," declared Mart.
"Me neither. I never ate any like that in 'Frisco, by juniper!"
They unanimously decided that they would not eat any more, and beforethey had stamped out their fire Bob found that he wanted very much toinspect a scarlet-leaved tree a short distance back in the bush. Martsaw another tree that he wanted to look at, and after fifteen minuteshad passed, two very pale and disgusted boys crawled out to the warmbeach again and lay there recuperating.
"By golly, I don't want any more of those oysters," said Mart, gaininghis feet after a little. Picking up the offending molluscs, he hurledthem out again into the sea, and Bob grinned faintly.
"No," he agreed, "I guess Ah Sing's cooking'll do me for quite a spell.By juniper, that oyster must have gone down wrong!"
"So did mine," replied Mart, "but it come up again--right. I move we hitfor the boat. I've had enough o' this, by golly! It's as Borden said;things ain't what they seem, not by a long shot!"
With that, they hit across the island for the lagoon side once more.They passed several trees which bore most attractive-looking fruits, andberry-laden bushes, but beyond pausing once or twice to consume a fewfeet of his reel at opportune points, Mart paid no attention. He and Bobhad learned a lesson and learned it well.
By the time they emerged on the inner shore of the island, however, theywere feeling perfectly recovered once more. Here the shore was flat andlevel, and as they looked about for the boat, it appeared a few hundredyards to their left. Dailey was lying asleep in its shadow, and out inthe lagoon itself the _Seamew_ was swinging lazily at her cable. Therewas no sign of any prau bringing back Jerry Smith, and the other threemen who had landed were not in sight.
"Where are the men gone?" asked Bob, as Dailey sat up at their approach.The leathery-faced seaman waved a hand toward the upper end of theisland.
"They went off that way, sir. Ain't showed up yet."
"Well, let's row up and meet 'em," suggested Mart. Bob agreed at once,and all three piled into the boat as they shoved it out.
Mart and Dailey took an oar apiece, Bob reclining in the stern, and theyslowly rowed up toward the far end of the island, where was a widechannel connecting the lagoon with the open sea beyond.
As they rowed, the two boys were lost in wonder at sight of the gloriesbelow them, for here the water was clear as crystal, though Daileydeclared it to be a couple of fathoms deep or more.
Sponges, marinefans, fish, coral, and all the under-water life lay open to them, incolors more gorgeous and magnificent than either boy had ever dreamedof. Bob declared it far ahead of the Santa Catalina sea-gardens, andMart could hardly row for his wondering admiration; but he was finallyrecalled to himself by a quick exclamation from Bob.
"Hold up there, both o' you! What's that ahead?"
Mart and Dailey glanced around, and an echoing cry broke from theseaman. Fifty yards ahead of them and slowly cutting the water in theirdirection, was a black triangle that seemed part of some machine, soevenly and steadily did it move along. But the size of it! Mart guessedinstantly that it was the dorsal fin of a shark, but he had seen no finof such size before.
"It's the Pirate Shark, Holly!" he cried suddenly, and plunged down forthe rifle. Bob stooped for it at the same instant, but Mart was tooquick for him. He rose again to find Dailey looking at them, aghast.
"Where might you lads 'a' heard o' the Pirate Shark?" queried the seamanhoarsely. Mart had no time to waste on him.
"None of your business," he returned sharply. "Keep steady there--"
"You'll waste the bullet, Mart," and Bob stopped him. "It'll simplyglance off the water at this angle. Hold on till we get closer!"
"Don't you do it, sir," implored Dailey, his leathery face suddenlypale. "It's the Pirate Shark, all right--don't you fire on him, sir! Myword on it, Mr. Judson, it'll be a bad day for us all--"
"Oh, cut out that superstitious talk, Dailey," broke in Martimpatiently. "He's a shark, and a big one; pirate or not, if I can't getto him I'll put a bullet through that big fin of his."
"That's the idea!" exclaimed Bob. "But quit talking or we'll scare himoff. Hit the fin, Mart--don't waste time tryin' to make the bulletpenetrate the water unless we get up close alongside."
Mart, quivering with excitement, got a bead on that tremendous black finwhich was now turning as if to proceed across their bows. It would befutile to attempt shooting the shark at such a distance, for as Bob saidthe bullet would simply glance from the surface of the water.
Suddenly Mart perceived that the fin was turning away from them.Instantly he sighted for its center, made sure of his bead, and fired.He saw the fin flutter wildly, then there was a great swirl of waters,and as the heavy detonation rang over the lagoon the black fin vanishedamid the foam.
"Hit!" yelled Bob. "There are the men, Mart!"
Indeed, the figures of the three seaman were visible, running down thesand, and Mart waved a hand at the yacht as he sat down, for he knewthat Swanson and the captain would be watching. But the greatest thoughtin his mind was that black fin. The Pirate Shark was a reality! They hadseen its "black flag" and he had sent a bullet through it!
None of the three spoke as they pulled the heavy boat in to the beachwhere the men waited. As they approached, the three seamen splashed outand piled aboard, Mart taking his place again in the stern. The firstquestion, naturally, was for the cause of the firing.
"We saw the Pirate Shark," answered Dailey. "We put a bullet through itsfin."
"Huh?" one incredulous cry broke from the other three. "Who fired it?"
"Mr. Judson done it."
Three pairs of eyes swept to Mart, who laughed at the amazement of themen. "Well, why not?" he wanted to know.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Birch. "You fired on the Pirate Shark, lad?Then I'm main sorry for you, that I am!"
"Why so, Birch?" queried Bob, leaning forward and grinning.
"Because it's bad luck, young gem'man," replied Yorke soberly enough,for all his twisted mouth. "It's mortal bad luck! If you'd put a bulletin that there Pirate Shark, you'd 'a' broke old Jerry's heart, youwould--"
"Oh, shut up, Yorke!" snapped Birch. "Give way, everybody! There's aboat!"
The boys turned and saw one of the native praus coming from the rivertoward the yacht. The superstition of the seamen affected them not atall, and Mart felt that all bans were now off, and they could tellCaptain Hollinger about the Pirate Shark whenever they chose. Jerry wasno doubt aboard the native boat now approaching--and Mart did not feelhalf so anxious to shoot tigers as he did to get after the Pirate Shark.For the Pirate Shark really existed, beyond any doubt!