his time, standing in the middle of the cross-beams with the
noose in his hand, he fixed his eye upon his enemy, threw the hat ashore
as a useless bait, and depending once more upon himself, he waited.

It was not for long. The brute made at him, and as it glided out of the
water to seize its prey, Rogers, by a quick leap, spread his legs wide
apart and held the noose so cleverly that the shark glided into it as a
dog leaps through a hoop; and it was so ingeniously adjusted that the
rope tightened directly, almost before the young sailor could shout
"_Now_" while the shark went over and down between two of the
cross-beams behind his fisher, as, from a cause upon which he had not
counted, Rogers took an involuntary header into the part of the
water-logged vessel from which the shark had come.

The cause upon which the young sailor had not reckoned was the rope,
which, at the shark's plunge as soon as noosed, tightened the line which
crossed Rogers' leg, snatched it from under him, and down he went, to
the horror of all present.

In a moment the water all about where the shark had plunged began to
boil, and the next moment there was a quick splashing as Rogers' head
appeared.

"Hold on to him!" he shouted. "Don't let him go. Where's he ketched?"

"Don't talk," yelled Syd, running along the planks to stretch out a
hand. "Here, quick, let me help you out."

"Oh, I'm all right, sir, so long as the rope holds," cried the young
sailor, coolly. "He won't think of me while he's got that bit of line
about him." But he climbed out all the same, and stood rubbing his
shin.

"Never thought of the rope hitching on to me like that," he said.
"Whereabouts is he ketched, mates?"

"The rope has slipped down pretty close to his tail," cried Roylance, as
he watched the creature's frantic plunges in the limited space.

"Something like fishing this, Roy," said Syd, excitedly, while the men
held on, and they could see amid the flying, foaming water the long,
lithe body quivering from end to end like a steel spring.

"I'd haul him out, sir, 'fore he shakes that noose right over his tail."

"Yes. Look alive, my lads. Now then!" cried Syd, "haul him out.
Quick!"

The men gave a cheer, and hauling together, they ran the writhing
monster right out of the water, and over the edge of the natural pier,
fifty feet or so up among the loose rocks, where it leaped and bounded
and pranced about for a few minutes in a way which forbad