372 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



was the sight of his little body drifting alongside 

 the almost motionless vessel. Immediately a great 

 shark rose beneath him, engulfed him with a single 

 effort and sank from view. Quickly, however, as 

 this had taken place, the shark reappeared and re- 

 hnquished the puppy intact, — Glover's mange 

 cure apparently not appealing to the palate of this 

 scavenger of the sea. 



The previous day we had received a generally 

 broadcasted wireless, warning ships to be on their 

 guard against a derelict — a schooner which had 

 been run down in our vicinity but not sunk. This 

 was brought to mind when a hatch drifted past, 

 then a chair and pieces of masts and rigging. Once 

 a huge squared beam was sighted which at first we 

 took for an upturned ship's boat. I put over a 

 small motor boat and the two men who went out 

 to the floating object reported that the beam had 

 been adrift for a long time, as it was covered with 

 barnacles and weed. A host of fish swimming be- 

 neath it tempted me to use the last few sticks of 

 dynamite which we had left. A number of fish were 

 killed by the explosion but all sank at once or 

 were taken by sharks before we could secure 

 them. 



Whenever the vessel was moving we trolled with 

 spoons and artificial squids for stray tunnies and 

 mackerel. Large swordfish came several times 

 to the shimmering bait, and one even tasted it, 

 but the slightly irritated nod of his head parted the 

 stout cod line as if it had been cobweb. I record 

 all these casual occurrences to indicate the many 



