158 DAHLAK 



*What were you waiting for? A mammy's darling?' said 

 Giorgio. We always referred to a shark with a nasty face as 

 a mammy's darling. 



*Just that — and it was twelve feet long.' 



OffDur Ghella. There was a long striped rock in the middle 

 of the sea. A motor boat approached it with Cecco, Priscilla 

 and Gigi on board. (I had left direct for Dissei two days 

 before). The rock was thirty feet long and its name was — 

 whale-shark. 



The boat reached it. They stopped the motor and rowed 

 slowly around. The rock remained still, with the waves 

 splashing lightly over it. Gigi's leg was bandaged and he 

 could not go into the water. Cecco had not got an under- 

 water camera so there was no point in his going in. If I had 

 been there with my Robot we should have secured a docu- 

 ment which although not new would have been none the less 

 interesting, for this animal is quite rare. In any case they got 

 shots of it on the surface. They looked at it and shouted at 

 it but the rock did not budge. He had not even noticed them. 

 Gigi became impatient. He wanted to capture or kill the 

 rock : Tf we can manage to drag him to the shore we can 

 take the most interesting parts for study — the skin, the skull, 

 the innards . . .' Cecco laughed in his face; they hadn't even 

 got the harpoon and if they had and had the courage to 

 fire it, they would finish up in the Americas 'on tow', or 

 still *on tow' at a depth of 600 feet. There was a devilish look 

 in Gigi's eyes. He rummaged under the stern board and took 

 out a package. Cecco's chin dropped and Priscilla mur- 

 mured disapproval. The package contained gelatine. Cecco 

 said it was madness, but at the same time worked feverishly 



