“Ay, shark!” said the captain, advancing, boat-hook in hand; “time her mischief was stopped.”
“Do they do mischief?” whispered Dick to Will. “No; never mind now; I can’t listen to you!”
The scene was too full of interest, for it was evident that the captain meant to hook hold of the shark, and draw it on to the sands before anything else was done.
But this did not prove a very easy task, for the great fish kept diving under the companions of its adversity, and keeping its head boring down towards the bottom.
If it had been a question of catching it by the tail there would have been no difficulty in getting a chance. In fact, several times over a thin line with a noose might have been thrown over the lobes and the fish drawn out; but the captain had made up his mind to get the boat-hook well in the creature’s jaws or gills and drag it ashore that fashion, while, when at last he did get a chance he missed, the hook gliding over the shining skin without taking hold.
Twice he missed like this, and it took some time before he could get another chance; but at last it came, and as, full of excitement, the occupants of the boat bent over the side, there was a quick lunge, and a tremendous splashing as the captain ran nimbly up the sands, dragging after him the long bluish fish, which was immediately attacked as it lay on the sands lashing about with its tail, and throwing its head from side to side till the knife-thrusts it received, and the violent blows across the back of the head, disabled it, and its course was at an end.
“I only wonder, sir, as she didn’t bite her way out of the net,” said the captain of the seine, as Mr Temple and his sons landed to have a look at the take:
“It is a shark, then?” said Mr Temple.
“Ay, sir, she be a blue shark, sure enough. Look at her teeth! Mischievous brutes; they follow the drift-nets, and bite the herring and pilchard out of ’em. I’ve known ’em swallow a conger when it’s been hooked, and I’ve seen small ones caught that way, but they generally bite through the line and go off. Look, sir, there’s teeth—sharp as lancets.”
As he spoke he thrust the end of the boat-hook between the shark’s jaws, and wrenched them open for the party to see.