lips. But at that moment my Faithful Assistant 

 burst into laughter. What was this — hysteria? If 

 so, it was strangely inconsistent with the emotion- 

 less courage which I had formerly and frequently 

 observed when sharing with her far greater and 

 more seemingly imminent dangers than the one 

 which now threatened. But my suspicion barely 

 arose before she added in a tone unmistakably 

 self-possessed, "Why, don't you see? — the thing 



is dead!" 



It was true — the shark was dead. So dead was it, 

 in fact, that decomposition had long since set in. 

 On pulling up to where the floating bloater lay 

 submerged, it became evident that it was its con- 

 dition which had caused the presence of the object 

 discernible at first sight near its mouth. Our ap- 

 proach, however, alarmed it, and it slunk away, 

 disappearing in the dark waters. But it did not go 

 fast enough to deceive us as to its identity. It was 

 a squid. 



We soon learned from the presence of still 

 others which streaked across our groping beam of 

 light, that a school of these animals was hovering 

 near. The individual of our early encounter, and 

 the one just engaged apparently in tearing away 



[201] 



