a pull or two, laid inboard, while the captain took
hold of the sharply-pointed hitcher, and held it balanced in his hand.

The impetus given to the boat was sufficient to drive it onward, so that
it was evident that the back fin of the shark and the bows of the gig
would arrive at the same point together, and Mark rose eagerly to see
what would follow, when the captain made him a sign.

Mark sat down, and suddenly saw the shark's fin stop some three or four
yards from the boat, change its position, and come end on towards where
he was seated; and his eyes were fixed so firmly on this that he quite
started, as he saw before it, and very close to where he sat, a
dark-looking body, with a rounded snout and two pig-like eyes.

"Don't know what to make on us, Mr Mark, sir," said Billy Widgeon,
grinning. "See his old shovel nose?"

"Yes," said Mark, "but I can't see his mouth. I thought they had great
gaping mouths, full of sharp teeth."

"He keeps his rat-trap down underneath him, sir, so as not to frighten
the fishes."

"Hand me that gun, Mark," said the mate.

Mark passed it along; and as he did so the shark glided round the stern,
and came along the other side.

"You don't think he'll attack us, do you?" said the captain.

"There's no knowing what a jack-shark will do," said the mate, quietly
cocking both barrels, and making the muzzle of the gun follow the
movements of the great fish, whose elongated form was perfectly plain
now in the clear water as he slowly glided on. The long unequally-lobed
tail waved softly to and fro like a peculiarly-formed paddle, and the
motion of the fish seemed to be peculiarly effortless as he went on
right past the gig, and continued his course a dozen yards ahead.

"Off!" said the captain laconically; but as he spoke the shark turned,
and the fin came toward them again, always at the same distance above
the water, and again on their starboard side, by which it glided, went
astern, and turned, to come back once more.

"Hadn't we two better pull, sir?" said Billy. "He means mischief, that
he do."

"Think he'll attack?" said the captain again.

"I'm beginning to think he will," said Mr Gregory.

He had hardly spoken when the shark turned, and there was an eddying
swirl in the water where his tail gave a vigorous stroke or two, and
almost simultaneously a long glistening cruel-looking head rose out of
the water.

The monkey uttered a shriek, and would have leaped overboa