e biggest fish story you'd ever
heard."

"I take it back," said George simply.

"How do you suppose he got here?" exclaimed John, who was examining with
personal interest the mouth of the giant fish. Row after row of great
white teeth, sharp as knives, were seen in the huge jaw. John shuddered
as he remembered how nearly he had come to losing his life to those
wicked weapons.

"It simply was washed up here by the waves," said Grant. "It was
thrashing around out there at a great rate after Sam and String had come
ashore yesterday. I suppose it finally died and drifted in."

"Well, I think Sam was wonderful to dispose of that fellow the way he
did," exclaimed George. "How did you do it, Sam?"

"With mah ol' knife."

"You thought he bit the shark to death, I suppose, Pop," laughed Fred.

"Hot air!" was George's only reply to his remark. Just what he meant by
such a slang expression he probably knew best of all.

"Let's measure the shark," exclaimed Grant. "I'd like to settle the
dispute once and for all and then when we go home and tell the story,
people will have to believe us for we'll all be witnesses."

"How are you going to measure?" inquired Fred. "String's shoe is up in
the cave, you know."

"We'll use String himself instead of his shoe," suggested Grant.

"What do you all take me for?" demanded John. "I'm no tape measure."

"How tall are you?" asked Grant.

"Six feet two."

"In your stocking feet?"

"Yes, and my bare feet, too."

"All right then," laughed Grant. "Just lie down alongside the shark."

"Go ahead, String," urged Fred. "It won't hurt you."

"I suppose not," sighed John and he stretched himself at full length on
the beach, the soles of his feet exactly on a line with the tip of the
shark's tail. Grant then marked the spot where his head came and John
moved up to this spot and lay down once more. Again Grant indicated the
spot by a mark in the sand and the performance was repeated. Four times
it was necessary to do this before John had finally covered the entire
length of the shark.

"He's three and one-third times as long as you are, String," announced
Grant, when the measurements were completed.

"That's twenty feet," exclaimed George. "Say, that's a real fish, isn't
it?"

"I should think so," said Fred. "I'm also glad that he is dead and lying
on the beach, for I'm afraid I couldn't enjoy a swim with that fellow
hanging around."

"There are others," said John.

"They won'