imming with long powerful strokes, and threatened
quickly to overtake us. Unwilling to injure them, we continued to row
away as fast as we could--now and then turning our heads to watch them.
They had got about half-way when a piercing shriek rent the air, and one
of them, throwing up his arms, disappeared beneath the surface: a shark
had seized him. His companions, seeing what had happened, turned round
and endeavoured to regain the raft. We watched them anxiously, for we
had no desire for their destruction, and gladly would we have saved them
if we could. They had got some way back, and we hoped that they would
succeed in reaching the raft; but when about a dozen fathoms from it,
another huge shark rose to the surface, and dragged down a second
shrieking victim. The third swam on frantically, crying out to his
companions for assistance. They stretched out their arms to him, and we
were thankful to see that he at length gained the raft in safety.

What the fate of those miserable wretches would be, with no one to
command them, to maintain discipline, or to direct them how to gain the
land, we dared not think. As for ourselves, we felt in comparative
safety on our small but well-constructed raft.

Boxall consulted with Ben whether we could take off any of the
unfortunate people; but the latter was strongly opposed to the attempt
being made.

"In the first place, it would be impossible to get off those we might
select," said Ben. "And then," he added, "this craft carries us very
well in smooth water; but should it come on to blow, and a heavy sea get
up, it's more than she would do if we had half-a-dozen more people on
board. Then, you see, we have water and provisions for ourselves; but
we should be on short commons if we had more people to consume it."

Ben's arguments prevailed; and though we felt sad at the thought of
having to leave so many people to almost certain destruction, yet we
could do no more.

The wind had now completely fallen, and as Ben and his companion, as
well as ourselves, had been awake all the previous night, we felt too
weary to continue working the oars. We were, also, both hungry and
thirsty, though we had hitherto been too much excited to think about it.
Halliday was, as usual, the first to cry out.

"Of course, we will get some food for you, sir. I forgot how sharp set
you must have been," said Ben; "but as we have no galley aboard this
craft of ours, you must be content to e