This was a frightening scene to behold, as you can well imagine. And when their leader approached our heroes, he repeated the words "Dinnah iss serffed," and licked his lips with anticipation.
He spoke again in that very strange accent, this time addressing Elephant: "Vatt iss a madder vi' chew? You nebber seen land sharks 'afore?"
"N-N-N-No, w-w-w-we h-h-h-haven't," stuttered Elephant.
"Habben chew?" the leader said, winking at his friends. "Den ah vill share some knowletch vi' chew to take vi' chew to da hereafter. (The other sharks roared with laughter at this). Ven our ocean dried oop millons off yearss ago, all da fishies died, includen uss sharks—except for two, zat iss. Undt dare chilluns ver born vi' liddle leggies. Ve arrda descendants off dose two, undt ve haff effolved over da yearss to our present selfs. Fully adapted to da land. Undt ve haff kept alive all deess yearss on a steady diet off hunsuspecting helaffant. So vat chew 'tink 'bout zat?"
"N-n-not t-t-too m-m-much," answered Elephant in a high pitched voice.
"I-I mean, I d-d-d-don't know wh-what t-to think."
"Tell chew vat ve do," said the shark. "Chew seem like nice a guyss. Ve no eat chew tonight. Ve eat chew tomorrow—fer break'ast."
[Illustration: Land Sharks]
All the sharks laughed uproariously, whereupon they surrounded our heroes and promptly lay back down in the sand and went to sleep.
"Well," said Watts. "This is a fine how-do-you-do. But I don't think we have to worry about these guys too much. I seriously doubt they could eat glass, so we can protect the rest of you." He smiled a very sharp toothy smile. "Besides, they seem to be very lazy. It isn't like they've enclosed us in a cage or anything like that. What's to stop us from simply slipping out between two of them and walking away?"
"Ahh am," came a rumbling voice. "Ahh am ze vatchman uff ze Land Sharks. But chew do have a point. Ve cannot eat glass. Ve can break it, but ve can't eat it. Chew are uff no value to us. Ve vill only be able to eat ze meat creatchures. Chew that are a made from glass may go."