ADVENTURE WITH A tfHARK. 253 



sail-underfoot; so I sha'nt run the risk of being tatooed by the boat- 

 swain's mate, like some one I could tell of. " 



" Coward," muttered the little wasp, "you are afraid, sir;" and 

 the other boys abetting the mischief-maker, the lad was goaded to 

 leave his hold of the cable, and strike out for the buoy. He reached 

 it, and then turned, and pulled towards the ship again, when he 

 caught my eye. 



" Who is that overboard ? How dare you, sir, disobey the stand- 

 ing order of the ship ? Come in boy ; come in. " 



My hailing the little fellow shoved him off his balance, and he lost 

 his presence of mind for a moment or two, during which he, if any 

 thing widened his distance from the ship. 



At this instant the lad on the spritsail-yard sung out quick and 

 suddenly, " A shark, a shark ! " 



And the monster, like a silver pillar, suddenly shot up perpendi- 

 cularly from out the dark green depths of the sleeping pool, with the 

 waters sparkling and hissing around him, as if he had been a sea-de- 

 mon rushing on his prey. 



" Pull for the cable, Louis, " shouted fifty voices at once " pull 

 for the cable. " 



The boy did so we all ran forward. He reached the cable 

 grasped it with both hands, and hung on, but before he could swing 

 himself out of the water, the fierce fish had turned. His whitish- 

 green belly glanced in the sun the poor little fellow gave a heart 

 splitting yell, which was shattered amongst the impending rocks 

 into piercing echoes, and these again were reverberated from cavern 

 to cavern, until they died away amongst 'the hollows in the distance, 

 as if they had been the faint shrieks of the damned yet he held fast 

 for a second or two the ravenous tyrant of the sea, tug, tugging at 

 him, till the stiff, taught cable shook again. At length he was torn 

 from his hold, but did not disappear ; the animal continuing on the 

 surface crunching his prey with his teeth, and digging at him with 

 his jaws, as if trying to gorge a morsel too large to be swallowed, and 

 making the water flash up in foam over the boats in pursuit, by the 

 powerful strokes of his tail, but without ever letting go his hold. 

 The poor lad only cried once more but such a cry oh, God, 

 I never shall forget it ! and could it be possible, in his last shriek, 

 his piercing expiring cry, his young voice seemed to pronounce my 

 name at least so I thought at the time, and others thought so too. 

 The next moment he appeared quite dead. No less than three boats 

 had been in the water alongside when the accident happened, and 

 they were all on the spot by this time. And there was the bleeding 



