The two sharks each claimed the other
had the shorter tail, and each fought to eat the other, and the one
with the longer tail won--"
"Hold, O Kohokumu!" I interrupted. "Remember that that shark had
already--"
"I know just what you are going to say," he snatched his recital
back from me. "And you are right. It took him so long to eat the
thirty-ninth shark, for inside the thirty-ninth shark were already
the nineteen other sharks he had eaten, and inside the fortieth
shark were already the nineteen other sharks he had eaten, and he
did not have the appetite he had started with. But do not forget
he was a very big shark to begin with.
"It took him so long to eat the other shark, and the nineteen
sharks inside the other shark, that he was still eating when
darkness fell, and the people of Waihee went away home with all the
lobsters for the king. And didn't they find the last shark on the
beach next morning dead, and burst wide open with all he had
eaten?"
Kohokumu fetched a full stop and held my eyes with his own shrewd
ones.
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