TIGERS OF THE DEEP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2730, 11 July 1906, Page 82

TIGERS OF THE DEEP.

By a Banker.

'Tis the rtehd calm, after a storm. The oily sea appears as if lifeless and stagnant, not a, ripple upon tho faco of the waters, not a danciug wavelet, nor a glittering shimmer of light on its leaden surface, but only the glaring full-orbed reflection of the blazing sun over head in the zenith. The siy is hot and coppery, its glorious azure faded to a livid saffron, and not a cloud, nor a- wisp of fleecy vapour, nor a filmy tuft of cirrus to break th» heavy monotony of the seething firmament; while- tho scorching muffled atmosphere is as motionless as' death, and as torpid and as inert as m a lethargic trance. Immovable, as though anchored: to a rock, the improvised sail hanging limp and motionless, is a hastily-constructed raft, upon which, are assembled half a score of shipwrecked mariners, gaunt anrl cadaverous, their glazing eyeballs sunk deep, and gripping- hunger and thirst stamped unmistakably upon their dispairmg and emaciated countenances. ' The last keg of water has bten broached, and th« last tin of biscuits has been opened, and the grim vision of starvation staores them full mi the face. Ono by one they lie down, haggard and helpless, never to rise from thab couch of death, never again to taste the joys and to revel in tke pleasures of life. And now, with a. last gasp, the vital spark has fled from one of them and his lifeless 1 corpse is cast into the deep.

But now, instead of the unruffled quiescence of the waters, in a- moment all is wild commotion and turmoil. For » great shoal of savage and voracious tigers of the deep has reached tho fated raft, and they are now fiercely contending for the piey, which in a. few momenta is devoured before the eyes of the terrified sufferers. And now, having tasted blood the cutir« shoal is furiously plunging and leaping around the raft, the hideous monsters gathering ever more and" more audacity, one of the wretched mariners, indiscreetly venturing too near the edge, being seized bedily by one of the gigantic sharks and forthwith sepulchred in its repulsive, voracious maw, And so It goes on, until half ths wretched cretf have succumbed, and have been cast to the insatiate devourers, when +he survivors are at length happily rescued by a passmar ship froai th 9 ghastly horror of that liri»g death. And there are other relentless foes, ever seeking whom they may devour, and ever endeavouring to drag their victims down to perdition. But those who make up their minds that as for ihem they will serve tho Almighty, and who, trusting in the atonement made for them by the Redeemer for the pardon of their iniquities, with Hia never-refused aid, live a. godly life, will most assuredly be protected) from those assaults, until they reach that land •where these spiritual enemies for ever ceas» from troubling and the weary are at rest.