gh, for the Malay was making his way swiftly through
the water, and the captain ran aft with a coil of rope to throw to him
from the stern.

I ran too, and could see that as the man struck the water in a peculiar
fashion, he held his knife open in his hand, and was thinking whether he
would use it when the captain threw the rope, the light rings uncoiling
as they flew through the air and splashed the water.

"Here, look out!" cried the captain; but the man did not heed, but began
to beat the water furiously, uttering a strange gasping cry.

"Look, doctor!" I cried, pointing, and leaning forward.

A low hiss escaped his lips as he, too, saw a dull, indistinct something
rising through the transparent sea.

"Yah, hi! Bunyip debble fis!" shouted Jimmy excitedly. "Bite sailor,
brown fellow. Hoo. Bite!"

The black gave a snap and a shake of the head, and then taking the long
sharp knife the doctor had given him from his belt, he tore off his
shirt and, it seemed to me, jumped out of his trousers. Then the sun
seemed to flash from his shiny black skin for an instant, and he plunged
into the sea.

The exciting incidents of that scene are as plain before me now I write
as if they had taken place yesterday. I saw the body of the black
strike up a foam of white water, and then glide down in a curve in the
sunlit sea, plainly crossing the course of the great fish, which had
altered its course on becoming aware of the second splash.

The Malay knew what he was doing, for ignoring the help of the rope he
allowed himself to drift astern, seeing as he did that the shark's
attention had been drawn to the black.

"He knows what he's about," said the captain. "If he laid hold of that
there rope, and we tried to draw him aboard, that snipperjack would take
him like a perch does a worm in the old ponds at home. Here, lower away
that boat, and I'll go and get the whale lance."

Away went the skipper, while the men lowered the boat; and I was so
intent upon the movements of the great fish that I started as the boat
kissed the water with a splash.

The shark was about ten feet long and unusually thick; and as it kept
just below the surface the doctor and I could watch its every movement,
guided by the strange but slow wave of the long, curiously-lobed tail.

"Now, you brown fellow, you come on. Knife, knife!"

As Jimmy shouted out these words he raised himself in the water and
curved over like a porpoise, diving right