184 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



one is at the sanatorium at Curepipe, while the 

 other two take it in turns to do duty and lie in 

 bed with the local fever." 



*' Don't you get fever, then ? " 



** Of course I don't. I am always about. The 

 planters give me lots of deer - shooting, and there 

 are some duck at the back of the island. But 

 what are you doing here ? " 



*' Faith, I hardly know ; you must ask the 

 skipper of the good ship lying in the harbour 

 there. A fortnight ago I had no idea I should 

 ever see this place, and now it appears I am in 

 for a considerable stay here." 



*' Well, we must try and make the stay agree- 

 able. I think I can promise you a day's deer- 

 shooting, and to-morrow we will try the sharks. 

 Come along now and have some lunch." 



Shark- shooting, as I learnt now, was R 's in- 

 vention, and he had carried it to rare perfection. 

 He had killed, so he told me, over a hundred of 

 these pests of the sea, but the supply was appar- 

 ently inexhaustible. His usual method I shall de- 

 scribe presently, but it was sometimes varied. " Some 

 little time ago," said he, " a cattle ship arrived 

 from Madagascar, and there was a dead bullock on 

 board. I begged the body, and had it moored near 

 the Bell Buoy outside the harbour. Then half a 

 dozen of us went off in a boat, and standing on the 

 platform round the buoy fired regular volleys into 

 the sharks which had collected in large numbers. 

 Their blood attracted others, and in an hour the 

 scene beggared description. The water was churned 

 into blood-stained foam, in the midst of which the 

 black fins sailed to and fro. Besides those we 



