186 MYSTIC ISLES 



ing the shark to more desperate onslaughts, manoeu- 

 vered so that they were able to kill him with a blow. 



The next day a swordfish of alarming size played 

 about them, approaching and retreating, eying them 

 and acting in such a manner that they felt sure he was 

 challenging the boat as a strange fish whose might he 

 disputed. One thrust of his bony weapon, and they 

 might be robbed of their chance for life. They shouted 

 and banged on the gunwales, and escaped. 



Steve hurried through this part of his diary. So 

 near to safety then, he had had not much thought for 

 a record. There was little more to tell, for after the 

 lightning, the sharks, and the swordfish, they had had 

 no unusual experiences. They had made the voyage of 

 nearly four thousand miles from the pit of water in 

 which they had left the El Dorado, and were glad that 

 they had not stayed behind on Easter Island. Steve 

 had only good words for the skipper's skill as a seaman, 

 but now that they were there, he would like to be as- 

 sured of his wages. The captain said he did not know 

 what the owners would do about paying Steve for the 

 time since the El Dorado sank. He was sure she had 

 gone down immediately, for, he said, he would not have 

 left his ship had he not been certain she could not stay 

 on the surface. He contrasted his arrival in Papeete 

 with his coming years before in the brig Lurline, when 

 he brought the first phonograph to the South Seas. 

 Crowds had flocked to the quay to hear it, and it was 

 taken in a carriage all about the island. 



The superb courage of these men, their marvelous 

 seamanship, and their survival of all the perils of their 

 thousands of miles' voyage were not lessened in inter- 



