nd haversack, back over the Doubloon and into the
wilds of Manzanilla, to settle certain disputed squatter claims, and
otherwise enforce the law; and now the night had fallen, and he was
not yet home. However, he rode up at last, dead beat, with a strong
touch of his old swamp-fever, and having had an adventure, which had
like to have proved his last. For as he rode through the Doubloon
at low tide in the morning, he espied in the surf that river-god, or
Jumby, of which I spoke just now; namely, the gray back-fin of a
shark; and his mule espied it too, and laid back her ears, knowing
well what it was. M--- rode close up to the brute. He seemed full
seven feet long, and eyed him surlily, disinclined to move off; so
they parted, and M--- went on his way. But his business detained
him longer than he expected; when he got back to the river-mouth it
was quite dark, and the tide was full high. He must either sleep on
the sands, which with fever upon him would not have been over-safe,
or try the passage. So he stripped, swam the mule over, tied her
up, and then went back, up to his shoulders in surf; and cutlass in
hand too, for that same shark might be within two yards of him. But
on his second journey he had to pile on his head, first his saddle,
and then his clothes and other goods; few indeed, but enough to
require both hands to steady them: and so walked helpless through
the surf, expecting every moment to be accosted by a set of teeth,
from which he would hardly have escaped with life. To have faced
such a danger, alone and in the dark, and thoroughly well aware, as
an experienced man, of its extremity, was good proof (if any had
been needed) of the indomitable Scots courage of the man.
Nevertheless, he said, he never felt so cold down his back as he did
during that last wade. By God's blessing the shark was not there,
or did not see him; and he got safe home, thankful for dinner and
quinine.

Going back the next morning at low tide, we kept a good look-out for
M---'s shark, spreading out, walkers and riders, in hopes of
surrounding him and cutting him up. There were half a dozen weapons
among us, of which my heavy bowie-knife was not the worst; and we
should have given good account of him had we met him, and got
between him and the deep water. But our valour was superfluous.
The enemy was nowhere to be seen; and we rode on, looking back
wistfully, but in vain, for a gr