Then
I saw that it was half full of meal cakes, and that it had been cast
away because the meal was stinking. It was the weight of these rotten
cakes acting as ballast, that caused the tub to float upright in the
water. Now I bethought me, that if I could get into this barrel I should
be safe from the sharks for a while, but how to do it I did not know.
While I wondered, chancing to glance behind me, I saw the fin of a shark
standing above the water not twenty paces away, and advancing rapidly
towards me. Then terror seized me and gave me strength and the wit of
despair. Pulling down the edge of the barrel till the water began to
pour into it, I seized it on either side with my hands, and lifting my
weight upon them, I doubled my knees. To this hour I cannot tell how I
accomplished it, but the next second I was in the cask, with no other
hurt than a scraped shin. But though I had found a boat, the boat itself
was like to sink, for what with my weight and that of the rotten meal,
and of the water which had poured over the rim, the edge of the barrel
was not now an inch above the level of the sea, and I knew that did
another bucketful come aboard, it would no longer bear me. At that
moment also I saw the fin of the shark within four yards, and then felt
the barrel shake as the fish struck it with his nose.
Now I began to bail furiously with my hands, and as I bailed, the edge
of the cask lifted itself above the water.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173