CHAPTER XXV
ON THE BEACH
The sun had scarcely made its appearance above the horizon the followingday when the inmates of the cave were astir.
"Get up everybody," shouted Grant, the first to arise. "We've got workto do."
"Yon won't have to call me twice," exclaimed John, hastily rising to hisfeet. "It seems to me I've been awake half the night anyway, justwaiting for that old sun to come out and give us enough light to see."
"Suppose it had been a cloudy day and the sun hadn't come out, String,"said George, who had now joined the others. "I suppose you'd have had tostay in bed all day. My, that would have been tough luck."
"You're pretty funny for so early in the morning," said John shortly."After you've broken your back digging for a couple of hours maybe youwon't feel quite so smart."
"My back will never get tired digging for gold," laughed George. "Icould keep at it for a week and not even feel it."
"An' me too," chimed in Sam. "Ah is pow'ful strong when it come to datkind ob diggin'."
"Well, let's get some breakfast and then give all these strong men achance," laughed Fred.
"Aren't you going swimming first?" demanded George.
"I'm going, I know that," said John enthusiastically. "I don't intend tomiss any swims in the mornings if I can help it."
"How about sharks?" queried Grant. "I should think you'd have had justabout all the swimming you'd want, String."
"No, indeed," laughed John. "I can tell you one thing, though, and thatis that I intend to stick awfully close to shore."
"You won't be any closer than I will," exclaimed George seriously. "I'llleave the middle of the ocean to the fish and not dispute it with themat all."
"Who's coming?" called George, who had already started. It seemed thatevery one was, for a moment later the other four members of the littlefamily were close behind George. All were in excellent spirits and anair of suppressed excitement seemed to pervade the atmosphere aroundabout them. When any one spoke it was in a tense tone and every laughsounded somewhat nervous. Eyes sparkled eagerly and breath came a triflefaster when the thought of the buried gold arose in any one's mind.
"Diamond horseshoes, Sam!" exclaimed John, slapping the grinning negroheartily on the back. "Diamond horseshoes right after breakfast."
"'Deed Ah hopes so," said Sam. "Ah sho' could use one ob dem."
"Not here, though," laughed Grant. "Pretty soon we shan't have anythingto wear if our clothes get very much more ragged."
"That's right, Sam," said John. "You couldn't wear your diamondhorseshoe on this island."
"Does yo' really think dey is any ob dem in dat chest?" asked Sam veryseriously and very eagerly.
"I doubt it," laughed John. "I don't believe they wore such things inthe days when this treasure was buried."
"Dat's all right dough," said Sam cheerfully. "As yo' say Ah wouldn'thab no use fo' one on dis yere island. All Ah wants am gold enough tobuy one when Ah gets back to Richmon'. Dat's when Ah wants it, an',golly, say won't dem niggers be jealous." He laughed aloud as he usuallydid at the thought, for it was a most pleasing prospect to him. He wasscarcely more than a child in mind; his great, and seemingly hissupreme, desire to make his friends jealous showed this.
"Maybe we'll find some earrings," suggested Fred. "We can wear those,and if we find bracelets and gold arm-bands and anklets and things likethat we can put them all on and look like a bunch of cannibals."
"You've certainly got a great,--" George began sarcastically, when a cryfrom Grant suddenly interrupted him. Grant had gained somewhat on theremainder of the band and was down near the shore when he called.
"What's the matter with him?" exclaimed John in a puzzled manner. "Whatdoes he see and what's he running after?"
"Let's go find out," cried Fred eagerly.
"Come on everybody! Hurry up!" called Grant, stopping for a moment andturning around. Down along the coast he ran, passing the ledge wherethey usually went swimming and continuing his course towards a smallcrescent-shaped beach only a short distance away.
"I'm not going to miss anything," exclaimed George, and he alsocommenced to run, followed closely by his three companions.
In a few moments they saw the cause of Grant's excitement. When theyreached the spot where they usually bathed they spied him standing onthe shore gazing at an object which lay at his feet.
"Look at that," exclaimed George, increasing his speed.
"What a monster," echoed Fred.
The remaining distance between them and the object of their attentionwas covered in a remarkably short time by the three boys and their negrocompanion. Every one was eager to be the first on the spot.
"What do you think of that for a shark?" demanded Grant when the othershad come to the place where he was standing.
"That's not a shark, that's a gunboat," exclaimed George grimly. "Wheredid it come from?"
"It washed ashore."
"Is it dead?"
"No," jeered Fred. "It isn't dead, Pop. It just crawled up on shore fora little nap."
"You think you're smart," retorted George. "I just asked forinformation."
"And I gave it to you, didn't I?"
"Stop your fighting, you two," exclaimed John. "Give some one else achance."
"How did it get here?" said George curiously. "What killed it?"
"Come around this side and I'll show you," said Grant.
All the others went with George and with the giant shark lying on itsside, its white belly towards the waves, Grant pointed out the cause ofits death.
"There it is," he said quietly. A great gaping wound showed squarely inthe center of the shark's belly. It must have been nearly a foot inlength.
"Whew!" whistled George. "Who did that?"
"Sam did it," said John. "Isn't that right, Sam?"
"Ah reckon it am."
"Is this the shark that was after you, String?" exclaimed George.
"That's the one."
"And Sam killed him," said George unable to fully understand it all. "Idon't see how he did it. Why, this shark must be twenty feet long."
"Yes," cried Grant, "and when somebody told you it was eighteen feetlong you laughed. You said it was the biggest fish story you'd everheard."
"I take it back," said George simply.
"How do you suppose he got here?" exclaimed John, who was examining withpersonal interest the mouth of the giant fish. Row after row of greatwhite teeth, sharp as knives, were seen in the huge jaw. John shudderedas he remembered how nearly he had come to losing his life to thosewicked weapons.
"It simply was washed up here by the waves," said Grant. "It wasthrashing around out there at a great rate after Sam and String had comeashore yesterday. I suppose it finally died and drifted in."
"Well, I think Sam was wonderful to dispose of that fellow the way hedid," exclaimed George. "How did you do it, Sam?"
"With mah ol' knife."
"You thought he bit the shark to death, I suppose, Pop," laughed Fred.
"Hot air!" was George's only reply to his remark. Just what he meant bysuch a slang expression he probably knew best of all.
"Let's measure the shark," exclaimed Grant. "I'd like to settle thedispute once and for all and then when we go home and tell the story,people will have to believe us for we'll all be witnesses."
"How are you going to measure?" inquired Fred. "String's shoe is up inthe cave, you know."
"We'll use String himself instead of his shoe," suggested Grant.
"What do you all take me for?" demanded John. "I'm no tape measure."
"How tall are you?" asked Grant.
"Six feet two."
"In your stocking feet?"
"Yes, and my bare feet, too."
"All right then," laughed Grant. "Just lie down alongside the shark."
"Go ahead, String," urged Fred. "It won't hurt you."
"I suppose not," sighed John and he stretched himself at full length onthe beach, the soles of his f
eet exactly on a line with the tip of theshark's tail. Grant then marked the spot where his head came and Johnmoved up to this spot and lay down once more. Again Grant indicated thespot by a mark in the sand and the performance was repeated. Four timesit was necessary to do this before John had finally covered the entirelength of the shark.
"He's three and one-third times as long as you are, String," announcedGrant, when the measurements were completed.
"That's twenty feet," exclaimed George. "Say, that's a real fish, isn'tit?"
"I should think so," said Fred. "I'm also glad that he is dead and lyingon the beach, for I'm afraid I couldn't enjoy a swim with that fellowhanging around."
"There are others," said John.
"They won't get me where I'm going in though," laughed Fred. "I'll be soclose to shore that any shark would run aground trying to get at me."
"Let's all go in," exclaimed Grant. "We've got work to-day and if we aregoing swimming we'd better hurry."
"Ah mus' hab one o' dem teeth," said Sam, referring to the array in theugly mouth of the great shark.
"What do you want one of them for?" asked George curiously.
"'Cause it am sho' to bring yo' luck."
"Then I want one too," cried George. "I want luck myself."
"Get us each one, will you, Sam!" exclaimed Fred. "We can at least wearthem for watch fobs when we get home."
"They'll help us to find the gold maybe," suggested George.
"Don't worry about that," exclaimed John, confidently. "We'll find thegold all right and we don't need any shark teeth or anything else tohelp us, either."
"Well, I say we don't fool around here any more, but go and get thegold," said Fred. "All we've done so far is to talk about it."
A moment later they were all splashing around in the water enjoyingtheir early morning swim. Soon afterward they returned to the cave,where they collected everything they had that might aid them in theirsearch for the buried treasure. They spent but little time there,however, and then quickly started on their way towards the big blackrock that was so strangely fashioned in the semblance of a shark. Neverdid a party start out more eagerly or with higher hopes than this littleband of castaways on their search for buried wealth.