Part 28 (1/2)

Colin shuddered a little as he looked at the groupers swimming idly about and said:

”Don't you suppose it was just because there were so many of them in this small pool? I hardly think a grouper would attack anything as large as a dog out in the open sea. They're much the same sort of fish as ba.s.s, you know.”

”No, sir,” the keeper answered; ”I never 'eard of a grouper bein'

dangerous out at sea. But there is a fish that's very bad around the coral on the reef.”

”You mean sharks?” Colin queried.

”No, sir,” the keeper answered; ”sharks ain't no fish.”

Colin elevated his eyebrows a little at this somewhat surprising way of stating that the sharks belonged to a lower order of marine species than any other fish, but he let it pa.s.s unchallenged.

”What fish do you mean, then?” asked the boy.

”Not sharks,” the keeper replied; ”there ain't no sharks near Bermuda anyway, they can't get near enough. The reefs run ten mile out and they never come away inside 'ere. No, sir, it's the moray I'm talkin' of.”

”The moray?” echoed Colin thoughtfully. ”Seems to me I've heard about that fish somewhere. Isn't it green? It's called the green moray?”

”Yes, sir; that's the fish. But there's more spotted morays around than green ones.”

”But that's hardly more a fish than a shark is,” objected Colin. ”Isn't a moray a kind of eel?”

”Yes, sir, but an eel's a fish. Leastways so I was always told, when I used to work over at the Aquarium on Agar's Island.”

”All right,” said Colin good-humoredly, ”I guess you're in the right about it. Go ahead and tell me about the moray.”

”I was just sayin', sir, that they were the only ugly things around Bermuda. And they stay quite a bit from sh.o.r.e out around the coral atolls. You see lots of 'em around the sea-gardens. They 'ides in 'oles of the rocks and strikes out at other fishes like a snake. I knew a diver once, who was goin' down after specimens from one of the sea-garden boats, and was nearly drowned.”

”How?” queried Colin a little incredulously. ”The moray couldn't bite through the diving-bell.”

”No, sir,--no, sir,--not through the diving-bell. But the india-rubber tube that put air into the 'elmet came swingin' past a 'ole in a rock in which a six-foot moray was waitin' for anything that might come along, and 'e darted out at it.”

”Did he bite it through?” cried Colin.

”No, sir; a moray's teeth ain't set that way. 'Is teeth set backwards so they 'old anything solid. 'E started to swallow the tube, the moray did, and jerked the diver on 'is back so that 'e couldn't pull the signal-cord. 'E would have been drowned sure, for 'e was forty feet down, but the water was so clear that some one on board the boat saw the fish attack 'im, and they pulled 'im up.”

”How about the moray?”

”'E was 'angin' on,” was the reply; ”'e wouldn't let go, and by the time they 'ad the diver on board agen, the fish 'ad chewed up the air-tube pretty well. But that wasn't the worst, sir,” said the talkative old man, growing garrulous, as he saw the boy look at his watch. ”Did you ever 'ear 'ow a big moray 'ad a fight with two men, one of 'em a fisherman from New York, and jolly well beat 'em both?”

”No,” Colin answered; ”how could that be?”

”I didn't see it myself,” the keeper began, ”but from all I 'ear the story's straight enough. The fis.h.i.+n' party 'ad gone out on the reefs after rockfish, which is one of the gamiest fighters we 'ave 'ere, and some of 'em runs up to fifty and sixty pounds. They 'ad 'ooked several fine 'ogfish--you want to 'ave a look at some of 'em; crimson fish they are with long sweepin' spines--and the next bite turned out to be a chub. They could see 'im plainly enough through the clear water. When pretty nigh the surface, just near'a large dome of brain coral, a long spotted fish shot out and seized the chub, swallowin' the 'ook into the bargain.”

”Did they have a strong line?” Colin asked. ”A moray is a powerful fish, isn't he?”

”'E's all muscle and teeth,” the keeper answered. ”Yes, sir, it was 'andline fis.h.i.+n' and they 'ad a good strong line, so it was a sure thing that they could land 'im if 'e didn't wrap the line around a rock.

Israel, the boatman, wanted to cut the line, but the New Yorker 'e said, no; 'ad never caught a moray before and 'e 'oped to get this one. So they got the boat out into deeper water, Israel keepin' it clear of the reefs and the fisherman tryin' to 'aul in the line.”