creature. It seemed to me to be at least twenty feet along. I stood
almost stupefied, keeping my eyes, as far as possible, fixed upon the
swiftly moving monster.

Sometimes he came quite near me, when I shuddered in every fiber, and
then he shot away, but ever gliding with powerful undulations of his
body and tail, around, about, and above me. I did not dare to signal to
be drawn up, for fear that the terrible creature would enter the well
hole with me. Then he would probably touch me, perhaps crush me against
the wall, but my mind was capable of forming no plans. I only hoped the
fish would ascend and disappear by the way he came.

My mind was not in its strongest condition, being much upset by a great
trouble, and I was so frightened that I really did not know what I ought
to do, but I had sense enough left to feel sure that the fish had been
attracted into the cavern by my lamp. Obviously, the right thing to do
was to extinguish it, but the very thought of this nearly drove me into
a frenzy. I could not endure to be left alone with the shark in darkness
and water. It was an insane idea, but I felt that, whatever happened, I
must keep my eyes upon him.

Now the great fish began to swoop nearer and nearer to me, and then,
suddenly changing its tactics, it receded to the most distant wall of
the cavern, where, with its head toward me, it remained, for the first
time, motionless. But this did not continue long. Gently turning over on
its side, it opened its great mouth, and in an instant, with a rush, it
came directly at me. My light shone full into its vast mouth, glistening
with teeth, and there was a violent jerk which nearly threw me from my
feet, and all was blackness. The shark had swallowed my lamp! By rare
good fortune, he did not take my hand also.

Now I frantically tugged at my signal rope. Without my lamp I had no
thought but a desire to be pulled out of the water, no matter what
happened. In a few minutes I sat, divested of my diving suit, and almost
insensible, upon the deck of the schooner. As soon as I was able to talk
I told my astonished comrades what had happened, and while we were
discussing this strange occurrence, one of them, looking over the side,
saw slowly rising to the surface the body of a dead shark.

"By George," he cried, "here is the beast. He has been killed by the
current from the battery."

We all crowded to the rail and looked down upon the monster. He was
about ten feet long, a