登陆注册
4809100000031

第31章 THE HEATHEN.(8)

I abandoned the canoe and started to swim toward the schooner, expecting to be picked up by the boat before I got there. One of the niggers elected to come with me, and we swam along silently, side by side, now and again putting our faces into the water and peering about for sharks. The screams of the man who stayed by the canoe informed us that he was taken. I was peering into the water when I saw a big shark pass directly beneath me. He was fully sixteen feet in length. I saw the whole thing. He got the woolly-head by the middle, and away he went, the poor devil, head, shoulders, and arms out of the water all the time, screeching in a heart-rending way. He was carried along in this fashion for several hundred feet, when he was dragged beneath the surface.

I swam doggedly on, hoping that that was the last unattached shark. But there was another. Whether it was one that had attacked the natives earlier, or whether it was one that had made a good meal elsewhere, I do not know. At any rate, he was not in such haste as the others. I could not swim so rapidly now, for a large part of my effort was devoted to keeping track of him. I was watching him when he made his first attack. By good luck I got both hands on his nose, and, though his momentum nearly shoved me under, I managed to keep him off. He veered clear, and began circling about again. A second time Iescaped him by the same manoeuvre. The third rush was a miss on both sides. He sheered at the moment my hands should have landed on his nose, but his sandpaper hide (I had on a sleeveless undershirt) scraped the skin off one arm from elbow to shoulder.

By this time I was played out, and gave up hope. The schooner was still two hundred feet away. My face was in the water, and I was watching him manoeuvre for another attempt, when I saw a brown body pass between us. It was Otoo.

"Swim for the schooner, master!" he said. And he spoke gayly, as though the affair was a mere lark. "I know sharks. The shark is my brother."I obeyed, swimming slowly on, while Otoo swam about me, keeping always between me and the shark, foiling his rushes and encouraging me.

"The davit tackle carried away, and they are rigging the falls," he explained, a minute or so later, and then went under to head off another attack.

By the time the schooner was thirty feet away I was about done for. I could scarcely move. They were heaving lines at us from on board, but they continually fell short. The shark, finding that it was receiving no hurt, had become bolder. Several times it nearly got me, but each time Otoo was there just the moment before it was too late. Of course, Otoo could have saved himself any time. But he stuck by me.

"Good-by, Charley! I'm finished!" I just managed to gasp.

I knew that the end had come, and that the next moment I should throw up my hands and go down.

But Otoo laughed in my face, saying:

"I will show you a new trick. I will make that shark feel sick!"He dropped in behind me, where the shark was preparing to come at me.

"A little more to the left!" he next called out. "There is a line there on the water. To the left, master--to the left!"I changed my course and struck out blindly. I was by that time barely conscious. As my hand closed on the line I heard an exclamation from on board.

I turned and looked. There was no sign of Otoo. The next instant he broke surface. Both hands were off at the wrist, the stumps spouting blood.

"Otoo!" he called softly. And I could see in his gaze the love that thrilled in his voice.

Then, and then only, at the very last of all our years, he called me by that name.

"Good-by, Otoo!" he called.

Then he was dragged under, and I was hauled aboard, where I fainted in the captain's arms.

And so passed Otoo, who saved me and made me a man, and who saved me in the end. We met in the maw of a hurricane, and parted in the maw of a shark, with seventeen intervening years of comradeship, the like of which I dare to assert has never befallen two men, the one brown and the other white. If Jehovah be from His high place watching every sparrow fall, not least in His kingdom shall be Otoo, the one heathen of Bora Bora.

同类推荐
  • 外科医镜

    外科医镜

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 无畏三藏禅要

    无畏三藏禅要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 连城壁

    连城壁

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说十支居士八城人经

    佛说十支居士八城人经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Early Short Fiction Part One

    The Early Short Fiction Part One

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 独断大明

    独断大明

    猪脚是明光宗第六子,他觉得不能让未来的崇祯皇帝朱由检做皇帝,于是,他在紫禁城里大喊了一声:我要做皇帝!新书:宋时风流,求支持~
  • 韶华流景,别离勿相忘

    韶华流景,别离勿相忘

    【更新不定时,建议养肥看】结缘?六爷?”战力榜第一的六爷竟然找自己结缘。陆欣抬起下巴,嗯,可以买彩票了。“相亲?”什么,相亲的人竟然和自己长得这么像。嗯,太玄幻了。世界上没有两片完全相同的叶子。直到陆欣遇到他之后才知道,原来所有不期而遇,都是命中注定。欢迎加入书友群:463058773【多多支持《此物,最相思》~~】
  • 商业经理学习辅导

    商业经理学习辅导

    本书编写方法力求做到理论与实践结合,原理与方法结合,传统管理与新的经验结合,目的是帮助商业经理掌握较深厚的基础知识,打下较扎实的功底。因此,本书不仅辅导应试,还是商业经理和其他商业干部的日常工具书,也可作为高等院校(包括各种业余大学)商业专业学生的辅助读物。
  • 梅子情缘

    梅子情缘

    书生徐渭于梅雨季节偶遇梅妖小梅,并与之相恋,但人妖殊途,家庭阻隔,两人无奈分离。岁月悠悠,二十年弹指一挥间,宦海沉浮半生的徐渭最终遭同僚算计,落魄返乡,心灰意冷,本以为人生从此云淡风轻,谁知梅山风云再起,他终难割舍和小梅的情缘而身陷其中,看一段人妖情如何穿越时空荡涤二十载,感一份真情难舍难分!
  • 青梅难负竹马情

    青梅难负竹马情

    【完结文!很腐,慎入。】当傻子的好处:一,能常人所不能,傻常人所不傻。二,没有缺点,缺点就是最大的优点。三,吃陌生美男的豆腐不会喊非礼!例如,戏弄太子,消遣王爷,撞撞书生。重点PS:那个倾城倾国的“邪魅丫鬟”,能不能独占为已用?*本书简体出版名:《一生一世:青梅难负竹马情》(上、下册,亲们购一本可好?)
  • 四宜堂集

    四宜堂集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 避邪

    避邪

    王茂过年回家,没给老婆孩子带回多少钱,却带来了一皮箱塑料片儿和有机玻璃心脏。他用这箱玩意儿赚了别人几年都赚不到的钱。这王茂怎么有了这么大的本事?1腊月十七王茂从外边回来。他是出去打工的。具体去了哪个城市,怎么打的工,他不说。"远呐那儿。先坐汽车走一天一夜,再坐火车走三天三夜。"他顺手指了一个方向给村里人看,"一共四天四夜脚不沾地。待下了火车那么一瞅,哇,万丈高楼平地起,又红又黄的一个花花世界!"他还没有走进家门,离老婆孩子还有三五十丈远。他把一口皮箱停顿在脚边上,给一些吸烟的爷儿们发烟。
  • 快穿之原来你是这样的宿主

    快穿之原来你是这样的宿主

    月老哪家强?“反派”红翎真“红娘”。————主神大人送关怀分界线————白羽:为什么最后一关是情劫?现任主神:弱水三千,只取一瓢饮,你这一瓢还是我掐指给算的,怎么样,够意思吧!白羽:......为什么叫“情劫”?(“劫”字咬着念)现任主神:呵呵~(意味深长)「历代主神惯例坑,我会告诉你?!」——————————————————2222:大猪蹄,看在宿主大大这么“在意”你的份上,人家…就大发慈悲地告诉你,加油,我知道你……可能……可以的!
  • 小故事杂集

    小故事杂集

    如花的青春故事里又包含着怎样的回忆?~~短篇故事~~
  • 罗天大醮设醮仪

    罗天大醮设醮仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。