102 The Shark 



swerved from her course, has neither accelerated nor 

 diminished her speed. Apparently she has perfect 

 confidence in her little blue attendant. And who, 

 possessing any observation whatever, can doubt that 

 on his return from his scouting journey the pilot has 

 in some mysterious way conveyed a message something 

 like this : ' I smelt something good ; went and had a 

 look. Nothing but a bundle of seaweed with a few 

 miserable little fry in it. No use to you.' I have 

 always felt sure upon seeing such a manoeuvre per- 

 formed that in some way or another, I know not nor 

 can I speculate how, a conversational message like 

 that has passed from pilot to piloted. 



On, ever on, by day and by night, through the clear 

 sea not far from the surface, the strangely assorted pair 

 proceed with occasional deviations on the pilot's part 

 in chase of the tiny organisms upon which this little 

 chubby mackerel lives. But, alas ! for his huge friend, 

 times are indeed hard. No corrupting mass of offal in 

 the shape of some dead sea monster is found ; nothing 

 at all to eat for two days with the demon of hunger 

 savagely gnawing at that massive liver and goading 

 the starving creature to frenzy. A floating log covered 

 with parasitical sea growths and attended by a swarm 

 of fish of many kinds, but principally dolphin, cory- 

 phaena, and skip-jack — another species of mackerel — 

 is passed within a mile or so. Pilot sets off at top speed 

 to reconnoitre. Shark, unable to wait, follows, and 

 reaching the object, launches herself fiercely at it tearing 

 at the solid wood as if she would compel nutriment to 

 spring from it. The attendant fish vanish affrightedly ; 

 there is no danger of any of them feeling those lethal 

 jaws, being in speed and agility far superior to any 

 Shark. 



In a little while her rage moderates, a considerable 



