!"

"I never said a word about bathing, Mas'r Harry," he responded rather
grumpily. "I said, Let's try 'em. I say if we had a big hook and line,
Mas'r Harry," he continued, with a broadly comical grin, "and baited
with nice fat little niggers, what sport we should have."

"Nice fun for the little niggers as you call them, Tom," I said.

"Yes, it wouldn't be very nice for them, Mas'r Harry. But I say, let's
see if they'd go at a bait."

"How?" I cried.

"Stop a moment, and I'll show you," he said; and running to where one of
the firemen was having a quiet pipe on deck, I saw Tom accost him, and
then go down into the stoke-hole, to come up again directly with a big
lump of slaty coal, bearing which he joined me.

"Let's drop this in gently," he said, "just over them; or, no, it would
make such a splash some of the sailors would come to see. I've got a
bit of string in my pocket."

Tom always had a bit of string in his pocket, and unrolling it he
loosely tied it round the lump of coal, and then getting well on the
bulwark raised the coal gently up and over the side, beginning to lower
it down.

"Take care you don't go over instead of the coal, Tom," I said with a
grim smile.

"Oh, I say, Mas'r Harry, don't talk like that!" he cried; "it's enough
to give a chap the shudders. It was only my fun about the little
niggers. Now, then, I think I can shake it out of the loop."

The sharks were just below us, and eight or ten feet down, as Tom
lowered the piece of coal right to the surface, without making any
splash and disturbing the water so as to interrupt our view of what we
hoped would take place. Then giving the string a jerk he loosened the
coal, which began to descend rapidly, its bright black surface flashing
in the brilliant sunshine till it was half-way down, when there was a
tremendous swirl in the water, which danced and flashed and obscured our
vision, only that we caught sight of something--of two somethings--quite
white, and then by degrees the water calmed down, and there were the two
sharks still there, but turned round with their heads in a fresh
direction.

"Why, they took the coal, and one of 'em's swallowed it, Mas'r Harry,"
cried Tom excitedly.

"No, Tom: I think I can see it right down below there," I said; "but
they did have a try at it."

"What are you young fellows doing there?" said a voice; and, as we
turned sharply round, there stood the captain. "What! are you fishing?"

"N