“What do you do with the swords after they are taken off?”
“Keep them as curiosities or sell them, just as you please. There is great demand for them. I have one that I should not like to part with. It belonged to a two hundred pounder. The sailors thought they had killed him before they hauled him aboard; but he gave one expiring flop after he reached the deck, and the point of his sword cut a big hole in the leg of my trowsers. If I had been a little closer to him, he might have injured me very badly. If a man had his only weapon of offense and defense made fast to his nose, he wouldn’t do much with it, would he? But it just suits the swordfish, which, according to Captain Davis, delivers his blows so rapidly that he will kill half a dozen out of a school of albicore before they can get out of his reach.”
“But what has all this got to do with Mars?” inquired Tom.
“I came pretty near forgetting about him, didn’t I?” said Joe, with a laugh. “Well, we went back to Gloucester with Captain Davis, who, as soon as he had disposed of his swordfish, fitted out for the banks—for codfish, you know—and went with him. He was to land us at some little fishing hamlet, whose name I have forgotten, where we were to obtain guides and go back into the interior after caribou; but he managed to run the schooner ashore in a thick fog, and there we stuck until Mars brought off a line to us. That was all that saved us. The sailors hauled in on it, and finally brought aboard a larger and stronger line to which a hawser was made fast. We took a turn with that around the capstan, and after a good deal of hard work, succeeded in pulling the schooner over the bar into deeper water nearer the shore. We got off just in the nick of time, too; for that night a storm came up, and raised a sea that would have made short work with us if we had been exposed to its fury.”
“Were there men on shore opposite the place you struck?” inquired Tom.
“Certainly. If there hadn’t been, who would have tied the line to the dog’s collar and told him to take it out to us?”
“I should think they would have gone to your assistance in their boats,” replied Tom.
“So they would, under ordinary circumstances; but no boat that was ever built could have lived a moment in the surf that was breaking over the bar when we ran on to it. I don’t understand to this day how Mars managed to get through it. I have seen him swim a good many times since that day, and in smooth water he doesn’t seem to be any better than any other dog. It is when the wind is blowing and the white caps are running that he shows what he can do. Uncle Joe was so well pleased with the dog’s performance that as soon as he could find his owner, he offered to buy him. Of course the man didn’t want to sell, but he was poor, and when he thought of the comforts that the hundred dollars which uncle counted out before him would buy for his wife and children, he came to the conclusion that we could have the dog. He’s mine now, for Uncle Joe gave him to me as soon as the bargain was struck.”