to it was
lowered into the hold, as if to fish for something. And a bale having
been caught, it was wound up, slewed round, and deposited on the deck.

When this had been going on a little time Strachan called out--

"Where's Gubbins?"

"Gubbins, sir," said the sergeant; "is he not here? No, he is not.
Where can he have got to? Gubbins!"

He went aft and looked into the lighter; there was no one there, and he
was turning away again, when he heard a voice in tremulous accents
crying--

"Help! Help! Do pull me up, some one, or send a boat. He will have
me--I know he will! He will jump presently; and if he doesn't, I can't
hold on much longer. Help! Oh, lor! Help!"

There was James Gubbins clinging to the rope by which the others had
come on board. He had waited till the last, and then attempted to
follow. There were two knots in the rope, one near the bottom, the
other some five feet higher, and by grasping it above the top one with
his hands, and above the lower one with his ankles, he managed not to
fall into the water. For the lighter had floated clear of him. As for
swarming up the rope without the aid of knots, he might as well have
tried to dance on the tight rope.

Now to fall in the water would of itself have been a serious thing to
poor Gubbins, who, of course, could not swim; but to add to his terror
there was a shark, plainly visible, his back fin indeed now and then
rising out of the water, swimming round and round, opening his mouth,
but by no means shutting his eyes, to see what luck would send him. And
good rations and regular meals, with something a day to spend in beer,
had agreed with James, who had not been accustomed before enlisting to
eat meat every day. He was plump, and enough to make any shark's mouth
water.

The sergeant called for assistance, and Gubbins was hauled up. He got a
good many bumps against the side before he was safely landed on the
deck, but he stuck to his rope like a limpet, and came bundling on board
at last.

And then, when he felt himself out of the reach of those cruel jaws
which had threatened him for a time, which seemed to him long enough, he
nearly fainted.

After this experience, if James Gubbins ever learned to swim, it would
have to be after his return to England, for nothing could persuade him
to go into the waters of the Red Sea. And so he missed the principal
pleasure which hard-worked "Tommy Atkins" enjoyed at that period. For
when t