SHEIKH SAID, GREEN ISLAND 27 



greyskin, and then we ran into the other dinghy with 

 Raimondo Bucher, his wife Enza, and Alberto Grazioli, 

 doctor to the expedition, who were joining us from the 

 opposite side of the island. They had caught a fourteen- 

 pound grouper, the first of the large number we later found 

 and caught. 



'Have you seen any sharks ?' we shouted. 



'Not a sign of one.' 



Yet we had been told that diving here would be suicide. 

 And those fins yesterday . . . were they really sharks ? 



We were now on the east of the island. It was midday, 

 and the shelf had once again vanished under the high tide. 

 We had a quick snack of ship's biscuits and tinned meat in 

 the boats. Poor Mohammed, a Mussulman, was forbidden 

 the meat brought along by the heathen and had to make do 

 on biscuits and bananas. After a while Gigi decided: 



'I'm going back in.' 



'It's pretty deep here,' I told him. Below us, a dozen yards 

 down, stretched the barely visible sand. 



'Join me. I'm off!' And off he went. 



I hurriedly put on fins and mask, re-loaded the spear-gun 

 and tied a knife on to my belt. I was sitting on the edge of 

 the boat with one foot already in the water when Gigi poked 

 his head up twenty yards away and shouted, almost calmly : 

 'A six-foot shark!' 



I sat and stared at him dumbfounded. Then down he went 

 again. I got up courage and plunged in. Noiselessly, searching 

 feverishly through the murky water, I swam slowly towards 

 him. Down below was that same strip of sand, seeming still 

 more distant and now lying deserted. Gigi returned to the 

 surface. 



'He's gone.' 



'Where?' 



