been the life of the crew, always laughing and
chaffing the others, as well as being the first to lead a song on the
fo'c's'le of an evening. The startling discovery of his cap in the
shark's stomach, coupled with the reflection that, had not Providence
intervened in his behalf, he might have also been swallowed up, seemed
to have completely sobered him for the time.

The other hands, however, were not much affected by the incident; and,
presently, when the bight of the rope round the shark was unloosed and
the body allowed to drop overboard, Moggridge sang out in a triumphant
voice: "Now we've got rid of Jonah, we'll have a shift of wind at last!"

"Why does the boatswain say that?" I asked Captain Miles. "What had
the shark to do with the weather?"

"Well, you see, my boy," he answered, "sailors are generally
superstitious, and they always think that killing a shark brings good
luck of some sort. Now, the best sort of luck we can have would be a
good stiff south-wester, or something of that sort, to drive us on our
way across the Atlantic, as we have experienced nothing but light
breezes since we left the islands, barely making five hundred miles'
distance from Sombrero. We'll never get to England at this rate in a
month of Sundays."

Unlike most prophecies referring to the weather, which, as a rule, must
generally be made after the event to be correct, that of the old
boatswain, curiously enough, turned out a true one, for, although we had
been only favoured with light winds from the time of Jackson's escape
from the shark and all the while the ill-fated brute followed in our
wake like a phantom of evil, not many hours elapsed after we had
captured the animal before a strong southerly breeze sprang up. This,
shifting round later on more to the westwards, came right astern of the
vessel--thus enabling her to spread studding-sails and sky-sails,
exposing every rag of canvas she could carry from truck to deck.

The wind, too, fortunately, was not a cat's-paw either, like the
shifting airs we had previously had, for it lasted us ten days at one
stretch, carrying us well to the south-east of Bermuda and almost more
than half-way to the Azores.

During all this time, no very remarkable incident occurred on board,
save that, whether owing to change of air or through some deficiency of
their native diet, three out of the half a dozen turtle, which Captain
Miles was hoping to carry home for the lord mayor's banqu