Part 17 (1/2)
”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 unoccupied hand, asked: ”What have we done that such awful stuff should be pulled off on us?”
”Hi, there!” shouted Bill suddenly ”I saw sos,” drawled Fred unbelievingly ”Bill saw so”
”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 lasses”
The binoculars were passed over to him, and he turned theht so,” he said exultingly a moment later ”I can see the dorsal fin of a shark out there”
Disbelief vanished before his confident tone, and all looked eagerly in the direction he indicated
”Perhaps it's only a floating bit of wood,” said Teddy doubtfully, after a 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 look through 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 soet a trial at hi in the opposite direction”
”I guess he won't go far,” replied Lester with easy confidence ”This is probably his feeding ground, and he'll keep going round and round in lazy circles We'll get a little nearer to hi else”
He retook the tiller and changed the _Ariel's_ course toward the spot where they had seen the shark
”Lower the sail, now,” he coone half a e way A shark thinks a boat's disabled when it isn'tmuch, and his instinct teaches him that the occupants are probably in trouble and his chance of finally getting the him around?” asked Bill
”It'll help, anyway,” replied Lester ”But to make it surer, we'll cut up the pork into small pieces and scatter it on the water He'll ser you that before tentoward us”
The boys got their clasp knives out at once and slashed the pork into bits, taking care however not to touch the big piece
”He's co,” cried Teddy, after perhaps five minutes had passed ”I saw his fin just then, not fifty feet away”
The pieces of pork were now bobbing up and down on the water at the stern of the _Ariel_, which had al