The Castaways | Page 3

best goes first; for the nigger there looks as if he'd last out the
whole lot of--"
The captain, to whom this imprudent speech was torture, with a gesture
brought it to an abrupt termination. He was in fear of its effect not on
the Malay, but on the insane sailor. The latter, however, showed no
sign of having heard or understood it; and in a whisper Murtagh
received instructions how to act.

"You lay hold of him by the shoulders," were the words spoken, "while
I take the feet. Let us slip him quietly over without making any stir.
Saloo, remain you where you are; we won't need your help."
This last speech was addressed to the Malay, and in his own language,
which would not be understood by any other than himself. The reason
for laying the injunction upon him was, that he sat in the boat beyond
the man deemed mad, and his coming across to the others might excite
the latter, and bring about some vaguely dreaded crisis.
The silent Malay simply nodded an assent, showing no sign that he
comprehended why his assistance was not desired. For all that, he
understood it, he too having observed the mental condition of the sailor.
Rising silently from their seats, and advancing toward the dead body,
the captain and carpenter, as agreed upon, laid hold of and raised it up
in their arms. Even weak as both were, it was not much of a lift to them.
It was not a corpse, only a skeleton, with the skin still adhering, and
drawn tightly over the bones.
Resting it upon the gunwale of the boat, they made a moment's pause,
their eyes turned heavenward, as if mentally repeating a prayer.
The Irishman, a devout believer in the efficacy of outward observances,
with one hand detached from the corpse, made the sign of the cross.
Then was the body again raised between them, held at arm's length
outward, and tenderly lowered down upon the water.
There was no plunge, only a tiny plashing, as if a chair, or some other
piece of light wood-work, had been dropped gently upon the surface of
the sea. But slight as was the sound, it produced an effect, startling as
instantaneous. The sailor, whose dead comrade was thus being
consigned to the deep, as it were, surreptitiously, all at once sprang to
his feet, sending forth a shriek that rang far over the tranquil water.
With one bound, causing the pinnace to heel fearfully over, he placed
himself by the side over which the corpse had been lowered, and stood
with arms upraised, as if intending to plunge after it.

The sight underneath should have awed him. The dead body was
slowly, gradually sinking, its garb of dark blue Guernsey shirt
becoming lighter blue as it went deeper down in the cerulean water;
while fast advancing to meet it, as if coming up from the darkest depths
of the ocean, was a creature of monstrous shape, the very type of a
monster. It was the hideous hammer-headed shark, the dreaded zygaena
of the Celebes Sea.
With a pair of enormous eyes glaring sullenly out from two immense
cheek-like protuberances, giving to its head that singular
sledge-hammer appearance whence it has its name, it advanced directly
toward the slow-descending corpse, itself, however, moving so rapidly
that the spectators above had scarce taken in the outlines of its horrid
form, when this was no longer visible. It was hidden in what appeared a
shower of bluish pearls suddenly projected underneath the water, and
enveloping both the dead body of the sailor and the living form of the
shark. Through the dimness could be distinguished gleams of a pale
phosphoric sheen like lightning flashes through a sky cloud; and soon
after froth and bubbles rose effervescing upon the surface of the sea.
It was a terrible spectacle, though only of an instants duration. When
the subaqueous cloud cleared away, and they again looked with peering
eyes down into the pellucid depths, there was nothing there, neither
dead body of man, nor living form of monster. The zygaena had
secured its prey, and carried the skeleton corpse to some dark cavern of
the deep! [Note 1.]
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Note 1. The hammer-headed shark, in common language, is rightly
designated one of the most hideous of marine animals. We mean
hideous in outward appearance, for, of course, there is much both
wonderful and beautiful in its internal organisation, and in the exquisite
fitness of its structure for its peculiar part in the economy of nature. In
the general outline of its body, which is something like that of a
cylinder, it resembles the ordinary sharks; and its distinctive feature is
its head, which, on either side, expands like a double-headed hammer.
The