given in, and so, I dare say, we shall
be fairly good friends for the future."

"Perhaps so," said Roylance, dryly; "but I say, don't trust him all the
same. Keep on your guard."

"Can't. Impossible; and I couldn't go on suspecting every one I saw."

"No, not every one--this one."

"Never mind that. Don't suppose I shall have any cause to distrust
him."

"I hope you will not," said Roylance, prophetically.

"Come along."

"Where? It will be impossible to stand out of shelter."

"We are not going to. Ah, here is Strake. Now then, have you got your
men ready?"

"Ay, ay, sir; but won't you alter your mind about the pistols?"

"Certainly not. Use your fists, and take the creature, whatever it is,
alive."

"Ay, ay, sir," said Strake; and leading the way down to the lower gun,
the men were posted among the rocks, and in the midst of the utter
darkness, with the dull roar of wind and sea coming in a deep murmur,
the watch was commenced.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

It was strange work keeping that watch, and Syd could not help feeling a
sensation of dread master him at times. He knew that Roylance was close
at hand, that he had but to speak and the old boatswain would come to
him, while the men were scattered here and there; but all the same it
was terribly lonely.

For what were they watching? It might be some wild beast with teeth and
claws that would rend him if he were the one who seized it, and the
longer he waited the more reasonable this seemed to be. It was a
creature that lived in a cave, or some deep rift among the rocks by day,
and came prowling out by night in search of food. Such a creature as
this must be dangerous.

But the next moment he laughed to himself as he recalled that rabbits
and many other creatures sought their food by night, and were innocent
and harmless as doves. Yet still the feeling of dread came back, and he
longed for an end of the watch.

"I like danger that I can see," he thought, as he began involuntarily
rubbing his shoulder that had been struck by the shark, and had taken to
aching in the moist cool night.

He shivered a little as he recalled the scene that day when he first
realised the danger of the hideous fish marking him down; and try how he
would the scene kept growing more vivid.

"I never half thanked those men for saving my life," he said to himself.
"The brute would have had me if they had not stabbed at it with the
oars. What's that?"

He strain