Chapter 4 fourth quarter

The big fish were swimming towards his raft with incredible speed.Johnny couldn't help but think of the horrific stories he'd read about sharks devouring wrecked crew members.He huddled as much as possible, staying in the center of the top of the wooden box.The wooden box swayed and swayed, which made people tremble with fear.Johnny knew that with a slight push, the box would tip over in no time.At this time, he no longer felt afraid, but felt a little pity, and at the same time hoped that everything would end as soon as possible and he would die.It seems that no one in the world will know what happened to him, which also makes him regret.

At this time, his small paper was surrounded by gray fish with smooth backs.They swim up and down the water with ease and grace.Johnny didn't know much about sea life, but these fish certainly didn't swim like sharks.These fish also need to breathe air just like him.Johnny could hear the wheezing and wheezing of the fish as they swam by the raft and saw the blowholes opening and closing.Ah, so they are dolphins! Johnny was relieved now, he wasn't curled up in the middle of the crate anymore.He has seen dolphins in movies and on TV, and knows that they are very smart, and they are also good friends of human beings!They romped like children among the wreckage of the Santa Ana, thrusting their streamlined snouts against the floating debris with grotesque hisses and squeaks.A few yards away, a dolphin, with its head fully out of the water, propped its snout against a plank, like a trained animal juggling in a circus.It also seems to be showing off to its companions: "Look how capable I am!"

The dolphin turned its head to Johnny, and although it was not human, it was very intelligent; although it was strange, it was very friendly.When the dolphin saw Johnny, he dropped the board on which he was playing, with unmistakable surprise.It dived back underwater, squeaking excitedly.Before long, Johnny was surrounded by sparkling, curious smiley faces.There was no doubt that they were laughing, because the dolphins were all grinning with their mouths open—and they laughed so contagiously that Johnny couldn't help but smile at the dolphins, too. Now, Johnny didn't feel alone anymore, he had companions, even though they were not human and couldn't help him.It was fascinating to watch these leathery, dove-gray figures swim so leisurely around me!They swam around among the wreckage of the "Santa-Anna", seemingly looking for something.Later, Johnny realized that the dolphins were just playing, like lambs playing in the spring meadow.But Johnny had never expected to see this kind of activity at sea.

The dolphins kept looking out of the water at Johnny, as if they were afraid he would run away.Johnny took off his soaked clothes and spread them out on the box to bask in the sun.The dolphins watched him curiously.He also seemed to think seriously for a moment when he saw Johnny drying his clothes.Johnny asked the dolphins seriously, "What should I do now?" One answer to this question should be self-evident: he must find some kind of shade, or he will be roasted alive by the tropical sun.Fortunately, this problem was quickly resolved.He picked up the planks floating on the sea, tied them up with his handkerchief, and built a hut like a temporary Indian residence, and then covered it with his shirt.When this "great project" was complete, he was proud of his masterpiece and hoped that his dolphin audience would appreciate his ingenuity.

Now, with nothing to do, he lay down in the shade to preserve his strength, and let the wind and waves send him to the unknown world.He is not hungry yet.Although the lips feel slightly dry, they feel thirsty, and it is still a matter of hours. The sea was calmer, and the oily waves rolled slowly past the wooden box.Suddenly, a sentence that he had read somewhere in Johnny's mind popped up: "Shaking in the cradle of the sea." Only now did he deeply understand the meaning of this sentence.The sea was so calm and so beautiful that he forgot his perilous situation.He stared at the blue sky and the blue sea, and watched the strange and beautiful dolphins swimming around leisurely, sometimes jumping out of the water, sometimes diving into the water, enjoying the joy of life...

Suddenly, he felt something push his small raft—a wooden box, and he woke up suddenly.I couldn't believe that I was still asleep.By this time the sun had almost risen to the zenith, and the raft was pushed again.Johnny saw why right away. Four dolphins were swimming side by side on both sides of the small raft, pushing the wooden box forward in the water, moving fast, far exceeding the speed of human swimming, and accelerating.The dolphins were splashing and panting right beside him.Are they playing some new game again?Johnny looked at them in amazement. But as soon as this question flashed in his mind, he immediately came up with a negative answer.The behavior of the dolphins has completely changed.Everything they do now has an obvious purpose.The game is over.He was now surrounded by countless dolphins, all of which were swimming fast in the same direction. If there were not hundreds of them, there were at least dozens of them.As far as the eye can see, there are dolphins all around him.It seemed to him that it was almost like a squadron of sea cavalry marching across the sea in neat battle formation, and he, Johnny, was placed in the very center of it.

He didn't know how long the dolphins would keep pushing him like this, but so far they didn't seem to want to stop.Moreover, these dolphins are constantly taking turns pushing the small raft forward.One dolphin swam to one side and another immediately approached the raft to replace it, thus maintaining a high speed.Although Johnny couldn't estimate how fast it was going, he guessed that the speed at which the raft was being propelled was at least five miles an hour.But he didn't know in which direction he was heading.The sun was just overhead, making it difficult for him to tell north, south, east, and west.

It was a long time before Johnny realized that he was heading west, because the setting sun was right in front of him.To his relief, night was coming, and he longed for coolness after a long day of scorching sun.At this moment, his lips were parched and thirsty.Although the surrounding water tempted him to drink, he restrained himself because he knew it would be very dangerous.Thirst is more thirsty than hunger.Even with food around him, he couldn't swallow it. The sun went down, and the sky was golden.Johnny finally breathed a sigh of relief.By starlight and moonlight, the dolphins continued to swarm him and push westward.If they could keep going all night at this speed, Johnny reckons they could swim at least 100 miles.It seems that these dolphins are moving towards the established goal, but of course Johnny does not know what they are thinking.He began to hope that land would appear not far ahead, and he also felt that for some reason these friendly and intelligent dolphins were sending him to land.However, why did the dolphins work tirelessly to escort him to the mainland?Johnny was puzzled again.

It was the longest night of Johnny's life.His thirst was so dry that he could hardly sleep.To make matters worse, after being exposed to the scorching sun all day, the skin all over my body was tingling unbearably.No matter how much he tossed and turned on the top of the box, he couldn't lie down comfortably.Most of the time he could only lie on his back on the raft, covering his stinging skin with his shirt.The moon rises and the stars move, which seems particularly slow, which makes people restless.Sometimes a bright artificial satellite streams from west to east much faster than a star moving from east to west.In the space station above him, the crews and instruments should have no trouble finding him, if they searched—it was maddening to think about it.Of course, they didn't know that there was Johnny who sneaked aboard on the wrecked "Santa-Anna", and of course they had no reason to search for him.

The moon finally set in the west, and the night sky before dawn looked even darker.But soon, a ray of light appeared on the horizon, and the beautiful and smooth bodies of the surrounding dolphins were shrouded in a piece of golden light.Sometimes, a dolphin will leap out of the water and create a rainbow in the night sky. This time, the coming of dawn no longer pleased Johnny.He knew how pitiful his "masterpiece"—a makeshift hut built with broken planks—was that it couldn't withstand the scorching tropical sun.He propped up the little tent again, and he went inside, trying not to think about his thirst.

This is of course impossible.He found himself thinking of drinks of all kinds within minutes—cold milk, iced juice, even tap water from the faucet.He drifted at sea for less than 30 hours. Of course, the time that humans can endure thirst is much longer than this time. Johnny remains hopeful because his escorts are determined and determined.The large group of dolphins guarded him, pushing Johnny's raft westward at the same speed.Johnny was no longer puzzled by the mysterious behavior of the dolphins.Sooner or later the question will be cleared up--what does it matter if you don't! About ninety o'clock in the morning, Johnny got his first glimpse of land.For a moment he suspected that it was just a white cloud on the horizon—but, if it was a white cloud, it was the only white cloud in the sky; and, besides, it was not overhead, but ahead— Isn't this a miracle!But soon all his doubts disappeared—it was an island, although it seemed to float on the surface of the sea, and the hot mist rising from the sea made the island's outline shimmer in the sunlight. An hour later, Johnny finally saw better.The small island is long and narrow, the land is not high above the water, and the whole island is lush and lush.The island is surrounded by a long stretch of white sandy beach, glistening in the sun.There was a wide, shallow reef in front of the beach, at least a mile out from the island, for a white breaker--a reef made by the waves. At first, Johnny found no sign of anyone living on the island.But after a while, he finally found a faint wisp of cooking smoke rising from the depths of the forest, which greatly relieved him.Where there is smoke, there are people, and there are people who have water—every cell in his body is yearning for water now. Miles away from the island, Johnny was taken aback by the actions of the dolphins.They turned a corner as if they were about to swim past the islet.Later, Johnny realized that the reef made it difficult for the dolphins to approach the land, and they wanted to go around the reef and go ashore from the other side of the island. The detour took at least an hour, but Johnny was quite relieved.He knew that he was basically out of danger.When the raft and his escorts came to the west end of the island, the first thing Johnny saw were boats moored on the shore, then some white low buildings, and behind them were some small huts and Dark-skinned people walking around the hut.It is a miracle that there are so many people on this remote island in the depths of the ocean! At this time, the dolphins began to hesitate.It seemed to Johnny that they did not want to swim into shallow water.They gently pushed Johnny's raft past the moored boats and backed away, seeming to say, "It's up to you now." How Johnny wanted to say thank you to them, but he couldn't open his mouth with thirst.He gently stepped down from the wooden box, stood in the water, and found that the water was only waist deep, so he waded to the shore. Many people are running towards him on the sand, but let them wait a while!Johnny turned and waved goodbye to those lovely, strong escorts.It was they who escorted him all the way and carried out this wonderful sea voyage.At this time, the dolphins have turned around and swam to the depths of the sea, their home. Then, his legs seemed to give up, and the sand flew up and hit him.The dolphins and the island and everything were gone - he was unconscious.