's that?" cried the captain as the boat struck something.

"Bock," cried Gregory. "No, too soft."

"Row! row!" said Mark. "It was a monstrous fish--a shark."

"You could not see it?" cried the captain hoarsely, as he bent to his
oar, Gregory following his example, so that the boat surged through the
water.

"I saw something dark amongst these golden eel things, and they all
seemed to rush away like lightning."

There was a dead silence in the boat for the next quarter of an hour,
during which the rowers pulled with all their might. No one spoke for
fear of giving vent to his thoughts--thoughts suggested by the adventure
early in the day; but every one sat there fully expecting to see the
savage-looking head of some shark thrust from the water and come over
into the boat.

The suffering was for a time intense, but no further shock was felt, and
as the minutes glided away their hopes rose that if this last were an
enemy they were rapidly leaving it behind.

All at once Mark half rose from his place.

"Is that the light over the mountain?" he exclaimed.

"Nay," cried Billy, "that's a fire. You can see it gleam on the water."

"Hurrah!" cried Gregory, "then that means home, and they are keeping it
up as a guide."

Another quarter of an hour's rowing proved this, for a big fire was
blazing upon the sand, and before long they were able to make out moving
figures and the fire being replenished, the leaping up of the flames and
the ruddy smoke ascending high in the air.

"Now, then, give a hail," said the captain, "to let them know we're
safe. They'll think we are coming from the other direction."

Billy Widgeon uttered a loud "Ahoy!" and then putting two fingers in his
mouth, brought forth an ear-piercing whistle.

A distant "Ahoy!" came back, and a whistle so like Billy Widgeon's that
it might have been its echo, while directly after there was a flash and
then a report.

"A signal from the major," said the captain. "There, Mark, a chance for
you. Fire in the air."

Mark caught up the gun, held the butt on the thwart, and drew trigger,
when the flash and report cut the air and echoed from the wood.

Another ten minutes' hard pull and the boat touched the sands close to
the fire, where all were gathered in eager expectancy of the lost
voyagers, who had, to meet the complaints about dread and anxiety, the
news of their discoveries.

"But you have not been much alarmed, I hope?" said the captain, draw