208 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



" 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 agreeable. 

 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 



invention, 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 apparently inex- 

 haustible. His usual method I shall describe 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 up into blood-stained foam, in the midst 

 of which the black fins sailed to and fro. Besides 

 those we picked up, we must have killed a dozen 



