Chapter 17

A PLEASANT SURPRISE

The other boys roared, and for a moment Teddy was disconcerted. But he quickly recovered his balance.

"I suppose," he retorted, frowning severely at the culprit, "that this low-brow means to intimate that I am a Spanish athlete. I should be deeply pained to know that any one who has been under the refining influence of Rally Hall should indulge in the practice of slang. What would our dear Doctor Rally say if he heard one of his pupils----"

But the question remained forever unanswered, for just then a piece of pork that Bill had picked up from the deck whizzed past the orator's face, and, in the quick and undignified duck he made, Teddy lost the thread of his discourse.

"Suppose you two cut out the fooling and get down to business," grinned Lester. "Fred and I are the only ones doing anything, and it's time you loafers got busy. Bring out the grub and let's have something to eat."

"That's always in order, like a motion to adjourn," acquiesced Teddy. "Come along, Bill, and we'll show these fellows how to cook."

Teddy and Bill went down into the little cuddy, got out the tiny oil stove, and the odors of sizzling bacon and steaming coffee soon made Lester and Fred sniff the air hungrily.

"I didn't know how hungry I was till just now," said the latter.

"I didn't either," returned Lester. "I was so worked up over that tussle with the shark that I didn't have time to think of anything else. But now I'm hungry enough to eat nails."

"If that's the way you refer to the meal we're getting up, you can't have any," threatened Teddy. "We may not be hotel chefs, but we'll not stand for having our eats compared to nails, will we, Bill?"

"Not by a jugful!" answered Bill, as he scrambled some eggs in the bacon grease.

"Take it all back," laughed Lester.

Teddy cut some slices of bread and Bill opened a jar of marmalade, which they put with the other eatables on the tiny table leaves that they propped up on both sides of the centerboard.

"Come along now, you aristocrats," called out Teddy, "and profit by the labor of us poor working men."

The wind was steady, so that Lester could fasten his tiller while Fred hitched the sail rope round a cleat. Then they crowded into the little cabin and passed judgment on the dinner. That it was a favorable one was shown by the magical rapidity with which every crumb disappeared.

"No dyspeptics in this crowd," laughed Fred, when the board had been swept clean.

"Not so that you could notice it," returned Bill. "A doctor would starve to death if he had to depend on our patronage."

"My belt is so tight that it hurts," admitted Teddy, loosening it a few holes.

They lay around lazily for a few minutes, too happy and satisfied to move. Then Fred and Lester resumed their places, while the other two drew a bucket of water and washed the dishes and pans. This done, they slumped down comfortably in the stern, watching the body of the shark that lunged along clumsily in the wake of the _Ariel_.

"He has an open countenance, hasn't he?" grinned Teddy, as they caught an occasional glimpse of the huge mouth on the under side of the head.

"And look at those teeth," shivered Bill. "They say that an alligator's jaw snaps shut with the power of fifteen hundred pounds. But I'll bet that the alligator has nothing on the shark."

"I guess you're right," agreed Teddy. "Those jaws would cut a man's leg off as neatly as if it were done with a razor."

"I shouldn't like to have him practise on me," said Bill.

"If that fellow ever had a toothache, it would be some ache," put in Fred.

"I wouldn't care to be the dentist that had the job of pulling one of them," laughed Bill. "I'm afraid the patient would be a little peevish."

"I'd get my assistant to pump a ton of chloroform in him first," declared Fred. "And even then I'd want to get into a suit of armor before I operated on him."

"No wonder the sailors hate the brutes," mused Teddy, as he thought of the poor fellows who had been devoured by the monsters.

"No one of them knows but that he may be the next," added Bill.

"The sailors get even whenever they have the chance," chimed in Lester. "The minute they see any of the beasts near the ship, they trail a hook over the stern in the hope of catching him. Sailors are superstitious, and they believe that as long as a shark is in sight some one on board is doomed to die. So they try to kill the hoodoo, by putting the shark out of business."

"It's a great thing to feel a good deck beneath your feet, when a shark heaves in sight," remarked Bill. "Even in a boat no bigger than the _Ariel_, we're reasonably safe. But think of what it must be like to be on an open raft on the ocean with a crowd of these hungry pirates swimming all around you."

"And flinging themselves half way across the raft sometimes, trying to upset it," added Teddy.

"It must be something fearful," agreed Lester. "But there are some people who are not afraid to meet the shark on its own ground--if one can call water ground."

"It must take a lot of nerve," declared Teddy. "I don't want to take their job away from them."

"Of course it takes a lot of nerve," was the answer. "It takes a heap of skill too. No one could do it, if he couldn't swim just about as well as the shark himself.

"Dad has told me of what he has seen with his own eyes. A native of some of the South Sea Islands, when he learns from a fisherman that a shark is cruising around, will take his knife between his teeth, slip into the water and swim out to meet him.

"As the shark is looking for him too and can smell him, it isn't long before they come together. The native knows when the shark is coming by the fin that shows above the surface, and when the shark gets close the native dives under.

"Of course you know that the shark has to turn over on his back in order to bite. The second it takes to do this has saved the life of many a poor fellow, and it is that that gives the diver his chance.

"The instant the shark turns over, the native plunges his knife into its stomach. He knows just where to aim, and that one stroke usually does the business. If not, he tries it again until the shark is killed. But everything has to be timed to a second. The least little slip, and it's all up with the native."

"I should think there'd sometimes be a chance of meeting a school of sharks instead of a single one," commented Bill. "What would the native do in that case?"

"That does happen sometimes, but it doesn't worry the South Sea Islander much," explained Lester. "He can usually keep the sharks off by shouting and splashing. Then, too, if he kills one of them the others are attracted by the blood of their comrade, and they tear him to pieces, while the native swims back home."

"Nice lot of cannibals those sharks are, to prey upon each other," said Teddy.

"Just like a pack of wolves," agreed Lester. "Let one of them be wounded, and the others tear him into bits. These wolves of the sea do the same thing.

"Dad says that sometimes the native won't even take a knife, but will just carry with him a stick of hard wood, sharpened at both ends. When the shark turns over to nab him, the native thrusts the stick crosswise between the open jaws. They close down on it, the points sink in so far that the shark can't shut its mouth, and the water flows in and chokes it to death."

"Seems funny to choke a fish to death with water," laughed Fred.

"Think of thrusting your arm into jaws like that," said Bill. "If the stick didn't go straight up and down----?"

"There'd be a one-armed native," Lester grimly completed the sentence. "But here's a boat coming up this way, and we've been so busy chinning that we hadn't noticed it. What do you make her out to be, Bill?"

"She hasn't any sail," pronounced Bill after a brief scrutiny. "Here, hand me those glasses."

"It's a motor boat," he announced a moment later, "and she's coming straight for us."

"A motor boat!" exclaimed Teddy. "Do you think it can be Ross?"

"It's more than likely," answered Lester. "But he'll be near enough in a few minutes for us to make sure."

The boat drew rapidly nearer.

"That's who it is," cried Teddy jubilantly. "It's Ross and the _Sleuth_. Now we can compare notes about the chest of gold!"