Suddenly Clara, with a stifled scream, clutched at Jim’s arm.
“Oh, Jim!” she cried, “what is that? Look, look——”
Jim looked and turned pale under his tan.
“Great heavens!” he cried. “It’s a shark!”
The cry was taken up by scores.
“A shark! A shark!”
There, cleaving the water and coming toward the swimmer like an arrow at its mark, was a great black dorsal fin which bespoke the presence of the pirate of the seas.
The steamer had lessened speed in order to lower its boat, but the momentum under which it was carried it within twenty yards of the castaway. 152
Almost instantly the ship’s boat struck the water, and the sinewy backs of the sailors bent almost double as they drove it toward the swimmer.
From the crowded deck they could see his face now, pale and dripping, but lighted with a gleam of hope as he saw the boat approaching. But the horrified onlookers saw something else, that ominous, awful fin, that came rushing on like a relentless fate toward its intended prey.