Barney and the Secret of the Whales by Jackie French

Author:Jackie French
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-01-05T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Man Overboard!

The world moved faster than I could think. The falling man, his scream above the crash of the water. I ran to the gunwale, my arms out like wings to help with my balance. Men stood either side of me, staring down. There were only bubbles where Peg-Leg Tom had sunk below the surface where the whale’s head had been, then not even bubbles as the waves washed them away.

I waited for Peg-Leg Tom to come up, to swim over to what remained of the carcass. And for a moment there he was, his head and then his hands, clawing at the air. Then he was gone again.

My body acted before I knew it. Before I could think, Peg-Leg Tom can’t swim. Probably none of these men who’d sailed the world’s seven seas could swim, because they’d had no Birrung to show them how. Before I could work out if the bit of swimming I knew was enough to let me rescue Peg-Leg Tom and get us both back safely. Before my arms and legs could freeze at the thought of being bitten off by sharks.

I simply moved.

I heaved myself up onto the gunwale, and then jumped down.

The water was hard, like I’d jumped into bricks. Then it was cold. It had hands, fingers that dragged me down, buffeted me. Down, down I went, with red water and bubbles all around, the currents twisting and pulling me. The water of the harbour was calm and warm, but these waves hated me, would kill me.

No, I thought as I surfaced, then gulped air, sweet air. The waves didn’t care. They simply were.

I struck out with my legs, like Birrung had done, scooping the water with my hands. But the water I’d swum in before had been flat and well behaved. This water tossed me and crashed down on me. All I could do was gulp air whenever my head was free of it.

The water was ever redder. I didn’t know if it was the whale’s blood or mine or Peg-Leg Tom’s. How much did it hurt if a shark ate your leg? Maybe the pain was too big to feel, like after Ma had died when it was three days before I was even able to cry. Maybe I had only one leg now, or none . . .

I just had time to realise I wasn’t sinking, wasn’t drowning, was even getting close to where Peg-Leg Tom was, when his wooden leg hit me in the face. The leg floated, but Peg-Leg Tom’s body dangled below it in the water.

I reached down, grabbed something and pulled. Pulled hard and struck back towards the ship and found that what I’d grabbed was shirt and Peg-Leg Tom too.

Something brushed my side. Something big and black. I just had time to see two knife rows of teeth before I struck out again, hauling at Peg-Leg Tom’s shirt with one hand and trying to swim with the other. I don’t think Peg-Leg Tom’s head was out of the water and mostly neither was mine, but I kept on going.

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