The urns were so far away
that the light was very dim; no better than half darkness. The
silence was broken by the sound of the rushing stream.
Suddenly the raft swayed gently; there was a parting of the water
not a foot away toward the front, and then--well, the ensuing
events happened so quickly that their order is uncertain.
A black form arose from the water with a leap like lightning and
landed squarely on the raft, which proceeded to perform its
favorite dive. It would have done so with much less persuasion,
for the fish was a monster--it appeared to me at that moment to
be twenty feet long.
On the instant, as the raft capsized, Harry and I lunged with our
spears, tumbling forward and landing on each other and on top of
the fish. I felt my spear sinking into the soft fish almost
without resistance.
The raft slipped from under, and we found ourselves floundering
in the water.
I have said the spear-thongs were fastened about our waists.
Otherwise, we would have let the fish go; but we could hardly
allow him to take us along. That is, we didn't want to allow it;
but we soon found that we had nothing to say in the matter.
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