human
I had an experience with a shark, he answered gravely,
gpt
Perhaps he wasn't hungry,
human
Not hungry? I'll tell you how hungry those sharks were. They'd swallow big chunks of pork, sir, nailed and wired to barrel heads, as fast as we could chuck 'em overboard; swallow nails, wire, barrel heads, and all, and then we'd haul 'em in by ropes, that did for fish-lines, only it took twenty or thirty men to do the hauling. And there were plenty of sharks 'round, only they never seemed to tackle a man in the suit.
gpt
Some say it's the fire-light of the valve bubbles that scares sharks off, commented Atkinson.
human
I don't know what it is, but I know the bubbles shine something wonderful as you watch 'em boiling up out of your helmet.
gpt
Phosphorescence,
human
How about that steamer you were telling about, I asked;
gpt
I should say we did, replied Timmans,
human
Tell about painting the alligator,
gpt
Oh, that was a bit of foolishness me an' another fellow done. He was a Dutchman, and got me to help him catch an alligator one day. He said he could bring him up North and get a big price for him. Well, we noosed one after a whole lot of chasing in a lagoon, and kept him four or five weeks, but he wouldn't eat, and the boys all gave us the laugh. So the Dutchman got up a scheme to paint him white and put him back in the lagoon. His idea was that this white alligator would scare out all the other alligators, and then we'd capture mebbe twenty or thirty on the banks, and make our fortune.
human
Well, we done it. We painted that alligator white, and put him back in the lagoon, and you can shoot me if those other alligators didn't eat him. Yes, sir; they chewed him clean up before we'd hardly got the ropes off him.
gpt
What did the Dutchman say?
human
He stuck to it his idea was all right, but it was the blamed alligator's fault for being too weak with fasting to fight the ones as weren't painted, and he wanted somebody to help him catch another, but nobody would.