Having filled our pockets and handkerchiefs, we hurried back to the tree, down which Harry was descending with a load of cocoa-nuts. On our showing him the oysters, he observed that they were too small to be of much use, and volunteered at once to dive to the bottom and obtain some larger ones. We accordingly returned to the bay; when, stripping off his clothes, he at once plunged in, and soon brought a number of large oysters to the surface in his handkerchief, which he had taken down with him for the purpose.
“Oh, there are not enough,” he said,—“I will soon get some more;” and again he plunged down. We could see him at the bottom, working away with his knife. I could not have remained half the time beneath the surface.
While he was thus engaged, I caught sight of a dark object at the entrance of the bay. Horror seized me, for I knew it to be a shark. I shrieked out to Harry to return. Tom also saw the fearful monster, and, with a presence of mind for which I should not have given him credit, he took up one of the larger oysters and sent it skimming along the surface, in the way boys are accustomed to make “ducks and drakes” with pieces of slate on a calm day by the sea-side. I immediately followed his example, hoping thus to distract the attention of the shark.
At length, though it seemed a long time, Harry came up, and only then hearing our cries, swam rapidly to the shore. We held out our hands to help him, and I breathed more freely when his feet touched the dry ground. A moment longer, and he would have been lost; for the shark, darting forward, almost ran his snout against the bank in his eagerness to seize his prey; then, startled by our cries, and the oysters we continued to heave at him, he suddenly turned round, whisking the water into our faces with his tail.
Harry took the matter very coolly. “It is not the first time I have had a shark dart at me,” he observed; “but I have generally had a companion who has attacked the creature with his knife. Had I been prepared, I would have met him in the same way.”
“I am very glad you did not make the experiment, Harry,” I answered. “However, it is a lesson to us not to venture into the water without keeping a look-out; and I am very thankful that you have escaped.”
“So am I,” he answered; “but now, as we have got as many oysters as we can carry, in addition to the cocoa-nuts, we may as well join our friends and have breakfast.”
“I hope that Tamaku will have managed to light a fire,” said Tom; “for though the oysters and cocoa-nuts are nice enough as they are, I don’t like raw eggs; and I have an especial fancy for some roast-duck.”
As we approached the bay we saw a cloud of smoke ascending from the sand, and we found Tamaku busily employed in blowing up a fire which he had kindled there. We soon rejoined him, and asked why he had chosen this spot.
“Because, you see, if I had lighted it on the grass, we might have had a larger fire than would have been pleasant.”