Our ship anchored off the coast of Africa. The day was beautiful, with a cool breeze coming from the sea.

But towards evening, the weather changed. It became suffocating, with hot air blowing from the Sahara desert like a furnace.

Before sunset, the captain came on deck and ordered the crew to bathe. In an instant, the sailors lowered a tent and improvised a bathroom.

There were two cabin boys with us; they were the first to jump into the water. Finding the canvas enclosure too confining, they swam out to sea and began to race.

Both were frolicking like two lizards.

One initially took the lead over his companion but soon fell behind. The child's father, an old artilleryman, was on deck admiring his son's prowess when the boy slowed down; the father shouted:

"Don't let him pass you; one more effort!"

Suddenly, someone on the ship cried out:

"A shark!"

And we all saw the back of the marine monster swimming straight towards the boys.

"Back! Back! Come back quickly! A shark!" shouted the artilleryman.

But the children, laughing and playing, didn't hear him and continued swimming. The artilleryman, pale and motionless, couldn't take his eyes off the children. The sailors quickly untied a boat, jumped in, and rowing hard enough to break the oars, flew to the rescue of the cabin boys. But they were still far from the children when the shark was no more than twenty cubits away.

The boys had neither seen nor heard anything, but suddenly one of them turned around; we heard a cry of terror, then the children separated. The cry had snapped the artilleryman out of his stupor.

He ran to the cannon, aimed, and took the fuse. We stood petrified, waiting to see what would happen; the shot rang out, and we saw the artilleryman fall beside his cannon, hiding his face in his hands.

The smoke prevented us from seeing the shark and the children; but when it cleared, we heard a soft murmur that soon turned into a general cry of joy. The old artilleryman uncovered his face, stood up, and looked at the sea.

The yellow belly of the shark was tossed by the waves, and a moment later, the boat brought the two children back aboard the ship.