t for no cause at all, but bekaze they
can't help it, alannah! And now that the little divils have kilt him,
sure they've swum off and left the poor crathur to die, just the same as
some ov us does to sich other, more's the pity, by the same token!"

It was true enough.

The thresher and his active allies had all at once disappeared, how,
when, or where, none of those looking on could tell; the lifeless body
of the black-fish only remaining in evidence of the battle that had
taken place.

There it was, floating sluggishly on the heavy rolling swell of the
ocean, in solitary grandeur; for the dolphins and "Portuguese men-of-
war" that had been seen earlier in the afternoon had taken themselves
off as soon as the light began--evidently preferring calmer scenes and
not relishing the proximity of such inveterate enemies of their several
species as the late combatants.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

FIRE!

The calm continued for four days, during which time not a breath of wind
came from any point of the compass to waft the ship on her way;
although, of course, she could not help drifting a few miles every
twenty-four hours southwards, under the influence of the great
equatorial current.

However, if there was no wind, there was no lack of novelty to those of
the passengers who had never been to sea before; for, from their being
now within the tropical region, the ocean around, albeit so still and
glassy, seemed to swarm with life. Thousands of flying-fish were to be
seen fluttering on either side of the vessel, while skipjacks and
bonetas also showed themselves occasionally; and the dreaded shark, with
his close attendant and valet the pilot-fish, was not an absentee, for
he was continually cruising about astern on the constant look-out.

"How funny those flying-fish look!" said Florry Meldrum, watching a
shoal of them that rose from the water just like a covey of white larks,
and which, after skimming past the _Nancy Bell_, again settled in the
sea, quite tired out with their short flight.

"You should see them nearer," said Frank Harness, who was between the
two girls, looking out over the gangway aft--"and then you would call
them funnier. Ah! here is one," he added, catching one of the little
fluttering creatures that had become entangled in the mizzen rigging;
"you see, it doesn't have wings as you think, but only a membrane
between its fins, just like what a bat has."

"Yes," said I "I see. It is curious, thoug