CHAPTER XII. 



CATCHING A MAN-EATEK. 



Tom's narrow escape Preparations for the sport The struggle and 

 capture Falling on a man-eater In the moat The prisoner 

 and provost-marshal The hermit-crabs A wonderful assem- 

 blage The animals on the island. 



OM'S idea was to perpetrate 

 a joke upon his companions. 

 They were all facing the bow of 

 the Rosetta, and he assumed that 

 they would not miss him for 

 some seconds or until the boat 

 came up in the wind, and then 

 would be astonished at his ab- 

 sence. 



Such was the case. The l?o- 

 setta glided on for some dis- 

 tance, then, naturally, came slowly up into the 

 wind, and as the luff of the sail quivered and 

 then flapped, the occupants looked around and 



(217) 



