Was it cramp, or the jaws of a shark?
Petrifying thought!
If ever he had been punished in his life for folly, he was being punished now!
He glanced wildly over his shoulder, then at the advancing boat. He tried to call aloud, but his voice was choked with spray. The pain intensified. It seemed to rise into his thigh and the leg felt wrenched from its socket. Surely this was the end? A shark——?
Jack remembered no more. He had fainted with the pain of severe cramp combined with the shock of terror. He had never been wanting in courage, but physical agony, and the notion of falling a prey to sharks before he had time to show fight, had caused him to swoon.
And it was at that moment that the boat reached him, and eager hands snatched him into safety.
Before the boat reached the ship he had recovered, and after a stiff dose of brandy, was able to take an interest in his rescue.
"I could have sworn a shark had got me," he explained. "The pain was so excruciating."
"In the water, cramp is the very devil!" said the third officer.
It was a shamed and chastened young man who disappeared into his cabin, amid hearty congratulations, to change into dry garments. In the face of so much honest relief and thankfulness, he felt a very worm for his deceit and trickery. It had been a mean game—a dirty trick he had played everybody, and Kitty in particular; which might easily have cost him his life. Truly, he had come to the conclusion that he was not fit to aspire to any nice girl. Kitty was properly fastidious, and she was not to be blamed for having recoiled from his unsavoury story, though it had been the barest outline of his misdemeanours that he had given her. All the same, it was hardly a yarn for the ears of even modern eighteen!