a first-rate swimmer, and I never heard of the man
who could keep up with me. Why, I once swam from Dover to Calais, and
back again, for a wager, and danced a hornpipe on the top of
Shakespeare's cliff, to the astonishment of all who saw me--but that's
neither here nor there."

"Vel, I vonder de shark did not eat you," observed the colonel, with a
grin.

"Eat me, mounseer! I should like to see the shark who would venture to
attempt it, unless he found me snoozing on the top of a wave," exclaimed
the boatswain, in a tone of pretended indignation. "If it hadn't been
for me, however, he would have bolted Tom Harding, and no mistake.
Well, Tom was swimming for dear life, and all the rest of the crew were
scrambling up the side of the vessel, thinking that it was all over with
both of us, when I saw the monster turn on his back, his white belly
shining in the sun, as he made a grab at Tom's leg. It was now time for
me to interfere; so, striking out with all my might, I seized the shark
by the tail, and slewing him round, just as he expected to make a
mouthful of Tom, he missed his aim, and his jaws met with a crack which
sounded like the report of a hundred muskets. Tom gave a shriek, for he
thought--as well he might--that his last hour had come; but, still more
from instinct than from any hope of escape, he swam on, and was very
much surprised to find himself alongside the ship. In fact, when he was
hauled on deck, it was some time, I was told, before he could be
persuaded that he hadn't lost both his legs, so firmly convinced was he
that the shark had got hold of them.

"I meantime kept a taut hold of the fish, who was whisking about his
tail, and snapping his jaws in his disappointment; and hard work I had,
you may depend on't. As he went one way I pulled the other, and acting
like a rudder, brought him round again, till I worked him nearer and
nearer to the ship. At last I got him alongside, and singing out for a
rope, which was quickly hove to me, I passed it dexterously over his
tail, and told the men on deck to haul it taut. He was thus partly
secured, but the difficulty was to make his head fast, for I had no
fancy to get within the power of his jaws. I should observe that he was
the largest shark I ever saw. I was almost despairing of securing him,
when one of the men, Bill Jones, I remember, was his name, made fast a
big hook with a lump of pork to the topgallant halyards, and hove it
before him. Th