He was soon almost under the ship's side, and one of the sailors threw the rope previously secured in his direction. Ralph grasped it with a despairing grip, but now the two fins were terribly close, and approaching at express train speed. A dozen willing hands grasped the rope, and just as the two man-eaters were within ten feet of him the exhausted swimmer was swung bodily out of the water. There was a swish alongside, two great white streaks flashed by, and the passengers caught a glimpse of two horrible, saw-like rows of gleaming teeth. Then Ralph was drawn up on a level with the rail, and strong hands pulled him safely inboard.
No sooner did he realize that he was safe, than he collapsed, and it was some time before he recovered from the strain. When he was once more himself, he grinned weakly at Bert. "Next time I'll follow your advice," he said.
"Oh, well, 'all's well that ends well,'" quoted Bert. "Just the same, it was more than you deserved to have us work ourselves to death a hot day like this trying to keep you from doing the Jonah act. It would have served you right if we had let the shark take a bite or two."
"Sorry to have troubled you, I'm sure," retorted Ralph. "But say, fellows, just as soon as I can get enough nerve back to think, I'm going to dope out some way of getting even with those man-eaters. I'll be hanged if I'm going to let even a shark think he can try to make hash of me and get away with it. In the meantime, you and Tom might set your giant intellects to work and see if you can think of a plan."
A sailor had overheard this, and now he touched his cap, and said:
"Excuse me for buttin' in, but I think me and my mates here can fix up those sharks for you, if the captain's willin'. On a bark I sailed in once we caught a shark that had been annoyin' us like these has, just like you'd catch a fish. We baited a big hook, and pulled him in with the donkey engine. If the captain ain't got no objections, I don't see why we couldn's sarve these lubbers the same trick."
This idea met with instant approval, and Captain Manning was soon besieged by a fire of entreaty. At first he seemed inclined to say no, but when he found that the majority of the passengers were in favor of capturing the sharks, he gave a reluctant consent.