“That ought to hook one of them blarsted man-hunters,” remarked one grizzled old sea dog, who was known to his companions as “Sam,” and apparently had no other name. “If that hook once gets caught in his gizzard, we’ll have him on board unless the rope breaks, won’t we mates?”
“Aye, aye. That we will,” came in a gruff chorus from the bronzed and hardy crew, and matters began to look dark for the unconscious sharks.
When the meat had been securely tied to the hook, the big crane used to store the cargo in the hold was brought into use, and the hook made fast to the end of the strong wire cable.
“Gee,” said Tom, who had been regarding these preparations with a good deal of interest, as indeed had everybody on deck, “I begin to see the finish of one of those beasts, anyway. I can see where we have shark meat hash for the rest of this voyage, if the cook ever gets hold of him.”
“Oh, they’re not such bad eating, at that,” said Ralph. “Why, when once in a while one becomes stranded on the beach and the natives get hold of him, they have a regular feast day. Everybody for miles around is notified, and they troop to the scene of festivities by the dozen. Then they build fires, cut up the shark, and make a bluff at cooking the meat before they start to eat it. But you can hardly call it eating. They fairly gorge it, and sometimes eat steadily a whole day, or at any rate until the shark is all gone but his bones. Then they go to bed and sleep off the results of their feed. They don’t need anything else to eat for some days.”
“Heavens, I shouldn’t think they would, after that,” laughed Bert. “I think if I ate a whole day without stopping it would end my worldly career at once. Subsequent events wouldn’t have much interest for me.”
“Oh, well,” said Dick, in a whimsical tone, “I suppose they think if they did die, they would at least have died happy.”
“And full,” supplemented Bert.
“Oh, that’s the same thing with them,” laughed Ralph. “That’s their idea of paradise, I guess. They’re always happy when they have enough to eat, anyway.”
“Well, that’s the way with all of us, isn’t it?” asked Dick. “You’re never very happy when you’re hungry, I know that.”