has not yet been claimed. Whenever I hear a thrilling
shark story I ask if the teller is prepared to swear to having himself
witnessed the event; invariably the experience is passed on to someone
else and the responsibility for the tale is laid on other shoulders. On
a quite recent voyage a talkative passenger confidently stated having
seen a shark 70 feet long. I ventured to measure out that distance on
the ship's deck, and asked him and his credulous listeners to regard and
consider it. It gained me an enemy for life.

One of the most famous and historical sharks was San Jose Joe, who
haunted the harbour of Corinto, a small coast town in Salvador. Every
ship that entered the harbour was sure to have some bloodthirsty fiend
on board to empty his cartridges into this unfortunate creature.
His carcass was reckoned to be as full of lead as a careful
housewife's pin-cushion of pins. But all this battering had no effect
on him. Finally, and after my own visit to that chief of all
yellow-fever-stricken dens, a British gun-boat put a shell into Joe and
blew him into smithereens. In many shark-infested waters, such as around
Ocean Island, the natives swim fearlessly among them. This ocean island,
by the way, is probably the most intrinsically valuable spot of land on
earth, consisting of a solid mass of coral and phosphate. "Pelorus
Jack," who gave so much interest to the Cook Channel in New Zealand, was
not a shark.

CHAPTER IX

IN AMARILLO

Purchase of Lots--Building--Boosting a Town.

Enough of odds and ends. To return to purely personal affairs. After
selling the cattle and ranch the question at once came up--What now? I
had enough to live on, but not enough to allow me to live quite as I
wished, though never ambitious of great wealth. What had been looked
forward to for many years was to have means enough to permit me to
travel over the world; and at the same time to have my small capital
invested in such a way as would secure not only as big a per cent.
interest as possible, with due security, but also a large probability of
unearned increment, so to speak; and above all to require little
personal attention. Dozens of schemes presented themselves, many with
most rosy outlooks. I was several times on the very verge of decision,
and how easily and differently one's whole future may be affected!
Perhaps by now a millionaire!--perhaps a pauper! At one time I was on
the point of buying a cotton plantation i