“Almost as bad, I should say,” remarked Mr. Bobbsey, who, with his wife and other passengers, stood near the rail with the children watching the ocean fight.
“The captain ought to stop the ship and go to the rescue of those fishermen,” said the man who had told Freddie not to get in the ventilator pipe again. “I guess the shark is bigger than those men thought when they tried to kill it.”
“Is that what they are trying to do?” asked Bert.
“It looks so,” replied his father. “Sometimes the fishermen catch a shark in their nets, and they kill it then, as sharks tear the nets, or eat up the fish in them. But I guess this is a larger shark than usual.”
“And is it going to sink the boat?” Nan wanted to know.
“That I can’t say,” Mr. Bobbsey replied. “Perhaps the fishermen caught the shark on a big hook and line, and want to get it into the boat to bring it to shore. Or maybe the shark is tangled in their net and is trying to get loose. Perhaps it thinks the boat is a big whale, or other fish, and it wants to fight.”
“Whatever it is, those fishermen are having a hard time,” said another passenger; and this seemed to be so, for, just as soon as the steamer came close enough to the small boat, some of the men in it waved their hands and shouted. All they said could not be heard, because of the noise made by the steamer, but a man near Mrs. Bobbsey said he heard the fisherman cry:
“Come and help us!”
“The captain ought to go to their help,” said Flossie’s mother. “It must be terrible to have to fight a big shark in a small boat.”
“I guess we are going to rescue them,” observed Bert. “Hark! There goes the whistle! And that bell means stop the engines!”