CHAPTER XV
CAPTURING THE SHARK
"Where on earth did you get that harpoon?" asked Fred.
"It belongs to father," was Lester's answer. "He shipped on board awhaler once and made a three-year cruise. He was the head harpooner ofthe first mate's boat and many's the time this old harpoon has struck aninety barrel whale. Dad has any number of yarns to spin about it, andsome day I'll set him going and you'll hear them all."
"That'll be dandy!" exclaimed Teddy. "There's nothing stirs me up somuch as a whaling story. I've often thought I'd like to make a voyage ona whaler when I am old enough."
"There's a good deal of romance and excitement about it," admittedLester, "but it's very hard and dangerous work. A man takes his life inhis hands when he ships for such a cruise."
"This certainly looks as though it meant business," commented Bill, ashe examined curiously the broad, flat, triangular head. "The edge islike a razor, and nothing could pull this barb loose after it onceentered."
The shank was about two feet long and served as a socket to the shaftwhich gave a total length to the harpoon of more than six feet.
"My, but it's heavy," said Fred, as he lifted it. "It must take somemuscle to handle a thing like that."
"It takes a good deal of experience to master it," said Lester.
"Do you know how to throw it?" asked Teddy.
"Father has shown me how, and I've practised a good deal on and off justfor fun," was the reply. "I might be able to hit a shark with it, if hewasn't very far off, and I might not. I'd have a chance though, and if Imissed I could try again. This rope attached to it prevents its beinglost, and I could draw it in again and make another attempt at it.
"Of course this is rather old fashioned these days," Lester went on."Now, in most of the whaling boats, they put the harpoon in a gun, justas you might thrust a ramrod down the muzzle of a rifle. The harpoon hasan explosive shell attached to its head like the torpedo of a submarine.The harpoon is shot from the gun, and after it leaves the muzzle, arocket charge attached to it carries it still further. When it hits thewhale, the bomb explodes and it's all over. Of course, it's safer andsurer than the old way, but it's too much like business. It does awaywith the exciting, desperate struggle between man and whale."
"What stories this old weapon could tell, if it could only talk," musedFred.
"Yes, and they'd be more exciting than anything you read in fiction,"added Bill.
"We may have a chance to use it before the day is over," said Teddyhopefully, as he looked over the waves on every side.
"It's a bare possibility," assented Lester. "I thought it wouldn't doany harm to bring it along anyhow just on the chance.
"You fellows want to keep a keen lookout for anything that looks like afin," he continued. "It would be too bad to let any guilty sharkescape."
As Lester had charge of the tiller and Fred was looking after the sail,the work of watching devolved on Teddy and Bill. They took oppositesides of the craft, Teddy handling Mr. Lee's binoculars while Billdepended upon the remarkably keen eyes with which nature had gifted him.
An hour went by, during which the little boat made rapid progress. Butnothing rewarded the vigil of the two, and Teddy began to growdisgusted.
"Nothing doing to-day, I guess," he grumbled. "Somebody's sent awireless to the sharks telling them to keep out of sight."
"And after Lester has taken all that trouble in getting a warm welcomeready for them," mourned Fred.
"It's certainly very ungrateful on their part," grinned Bill.
"The shark who hides and runs away May live to bite another day."
Teddy was the perpetrator of the lines.
Fred groaned and, as he made a pass at his brother with his unoccupiedhand, asked: "What have we done that such awful stuff should be pulledoff on us?"
"Hi, there!" shouted Bill suddenly. "I saw something just then."
"Hang out the flags," drawled Fred unbelievingly. "Bill saw something."
"He saw the sea, he saw the sky, He saw the drifting clouds go by,"
chanted Teddy, the irrepressible.
"I'd see a couple of boobs, if I looked over your way," retorted Bill."Cut out the chatter and hand me those glasses."
The binoculars were passed over to him, and he turned them on an objectfar out to starboard.
"I thought so," he said exultingly a moment later. "I can see the dorsalfin of a shark out there."
Disbelief vanished before his confident tone, and all looked eagerly inthe direction he indicated.
"Perhaps it's only a floating bit of wood," said Teddy doubtfully, aftera long gaze through the glasses.
"Let Lester look," suggested Bill. "He knows a shark when he sees one."
Lester relinquished the tiller to Bill and took a long, steady lookthrough the binoculars.
"Bill is right," he announced at last. "It's a shark and a big one too.I guess we're going to have some sport, after all."
"But how are we going to get a trial at him?" cried Teddy. "He seems tobe going in the opposite direction."
"I guess he won't go far," replied Lester with easy confidence. "This isprobably his feeding ground, and he'll keep going round and round inlazy circles. We'll get a little nearer to him before we do anythingelse."
He retook the tiller and changed the _Ariel's_ course toward thespot where they had seen the shark.
"Lower the sail, now," he commanded, when they had gone half a mile."Just keep up enough to give us steerage way. A shark thinks a boat'sdisabled when it isn't moving much, and his instinct teaches him thatthe occupants are probably in trouble and his chance of finally gettingthem will be better."
"Do you think that will bring him around?" asked Bill.
"It'll help, anyway," replied Lester. "But to make it surer, we'll cutup the pork into small pieces and scatter it on the water. He'll smellit as sure as guns, and I'll wager you that before ten minutes are overyou'll see the old rascal swimming toward us."
The boys got their clasp knives out at once and slashed the pork intobits, taking care however not to touch the big piece.
"He's coming," cried Teddy, after perhaps five minutes had passed. "Isaw his fin just then, not fifty feet away."
The pieces of pork were now bobbing up and down on the water at thestern of the _Ariel_, which had almost stopped moving.
There was a twitch and one of the pieces disappeared. For an instant theboys saw a long black body, the wet skin glistening in the rays of thesun like so much velvet.
"By jinks!" whispered Bill in awe. "What an old sockdolager!"
"He's one of the biggest I've ever seen," returned Lester. "Fellows ofhis size don't get up this way very often."
"I'd hate to fall overboard just now," said Teddy.
"You'd make just about one mouthful for him," was Fred's comfortingrejoinder.
Lester was making feverish haste in the task of preparing the hook. Hesank it deep into the yielding pork, so that the point was at least sixinches from any surface.
"Suppose he nibbles it off," suggested Bill.
"Sharks don't eat that way," grinned Lester. "They're gluttons, and ifthey bite at all they take everything down--hook, line and sinker."
"I'm afraid we couldn't hold him if we did hook him," said Teddy. "He'dyank us overboard in a minute."
"I'll take care of that," replied Lester, at the same time takingseveral turns around the mast with the slack of the rope. "He'll have topull the mast out of the _Ariel_ to get away."
By this time all the floating bits of pork had been snapped up by thiscormorant of the sea.
"He seems to like our lunch counter," laughed Teddy.
"We've made him a steady customer, I guess," returned Bill.
"Well, if he likes the samples, we'll show him some of the real goods,"chimed in Lester, as he prepared to throw the baited hook overboard.
Just then the shark appeared, swimming lazily under the counter of theboat. He was just under the surface,
and his glassy, wicked eyes lookedfull in the faces of the boys as they crowded to the side.
"My, he's a terror!" exclaimed Teddy, as the pirate of the seas slowlymoved past. "Is he going away do you think?" he asked in alarm, as theirintended prey vanished in the direction of the bow.
"No fear," responded Lester cheerily. "The pickings round here are toogood for him to think of going away just yet."
"Why don't you wait till he comes around again and then make a throw athim with the harpoon?" asked Bill. "I should think you might hit him."
"Wouldn't have a chance on earth," was the answer. "He'd dodge it like aflash of lightning. Then he'd take alarm and make a quick sneak awayfrom here. After we get him hooked, we can hold him steady and I'll havea chance to take aim."
With a mighty heave, Lester threw the hook as far as he could over thestern. The iron chain attached to it hung several inches under thewater, but its buoyancy kept the huge chunk of pork floating on thesurface.
For several minutes the boys waited, their hearts beating so hard thatit almost seemed that they could be heard.
"Do you think he's really cleared out and left us?" asked Teddy, withdisappointment in his tone.
"Don't worry," was Lester's encouraging reply. "He thinks he has toosoft a snap here to dream of giving it up."
Just then Teddy's question was answered by the shark himself. There wasa swish in the water on the other side of the boat, and the boys sawthat ominous fin sweep past.
The shark made straight for the hook with its tempting bait. But hesniffed at it a moment and then commenced to swim slowly around it inwide circles.
"He's a little bit suspicious," whispered Lester. "This is so muchbigger than the others that it seems too good to be true."
For several minutes the great fish kept up his circular movement, butthe onlookers noticed that the circles were steadily growing smaller.
"He can't resist it!" exulted Fred. "His judgment tells him he'd betternot, but his appetite urges him on."
"From what I know of sharks, I'll wager that his appetite will win,"chuckled Lester.
Suddenly the shark seemed to reach a decision. Like a flash he dartedtoward the bait and it disappeared in his rapacious maw.
"Hurrah!" yelled Teddy in uncontrollable excitement. "He's hooked atlast!"