st as it was within a few yards, the
shallowness of the water seemed to startle it, making it give quite a
bound showing half its length, and then diving down with a kind of
wallow, after which the occupants of the boat saw the wooden pole go
trailing along the surface, till once more it was snatched, as it were,
out of sight.

"Don't seem as if he's going to shake it out," said Jem.

"You must have driven the spike in right over the hook, and it acts like
a barb. What a blow you must have given!"

"Well, I hit as hard as I could," said Jem. "He was coming at me. Can
you see it now?"

"No."

"Keep a sharp look-out; it's sure to come up sometime."

The sharp look-out was kept; but they did not see the boathook again,
though they watched patiently till nearly sundown, when a hail came from
the woods; and as the boat-keepers got up the grapnel and ran the light
vessel in shore, the captain and his men appeared slowly to their left,
and came down as if utterly wearied out.

"Look at 'em, Mas' Don; they've been having a fight."

Jaded, their clothes torn in all directions, coated with mud, and with
their faces smeared and scored, the blood stains on their cheeks and
hands gave the returning party all the appearance of those who had been
engaged in a fight for life.

But it had only been an encounter with the terrible thorns and spines of
the wild land they had explored, and the wounds, much as they had bled,
were but skin deep.

The boat-keepers leaped out, and ran the stern in as close as they
could, and the captain was in the act of stepping in, placing a hand on
Don's shoulder to steady himself, worn out as he was with his long
tramp, when it seemed to Don that he felt the cold, slimy touch of a
shark gliding up against his bare legs, and with a start of horror he
sprang sidewise, with the result that the captain, who was bearing down
upon the lad's shoulder, fell sidewise into the sea.

"You clumsy idiot!" cried the captain; and forgetting himself in his
annoyance, worn out as he was, and irritable from his great exertions,
he caught at Don's extended hand, and then as he rose struck the boy a
heavy blow with his doubled fist right in the chest.

Don staggered heavily, fell into the water, and then struggled up
drenched as the captain was before him. Then, forgetting in his hot
rage everything about their relative positions and the difference in
age, the boy made for the tall, frowning officer before h