ome water had entered at the edges, but, as the
goods were of a kind that could not be damaged much, little harm was
done. Again he resolved to preserve all that he had accumulated there,
although he did not know that he would have any need of them.

When he rowed back in the dinghy he saw a formidable fin cutting the
water again, and, laying down the oars, he took up the rifle which he
always carried with him. He watched until the shark was almost on the
surface of the water, and then he sent a bullet into it. There was a
great splashing, followed by a disappearance, and he did not know just
then the effect of his shot, but a little later, when the huge body of
the slain fish floated to the surface he felt intense satisfaction, as
he believed that it would have been a man-eater had it the chance.

CHAPTER VIII

MAKING THE BEST OF IT

After his return in the dinghy Robert decided that he would have some
fresh beef and also a little sport. Although the island contained no
indigenous wild animals of any size, there were the wild cattle, and he
had seen they were both long of horn and fierce. If he courted peril he
might find it in hunting them, and in truth he rather wanted a little
risk. There was such an absence of variety in his life, owing to the
lack of human companionship, that an attack by a maddened bull, for
instance, would add spice to it. The rifle would protect him from any
extreme danger.

He knew he was likely to find cattle near the larger lake, and, as he
had expected, he saw a herd of almost fifty grazing there on a flat at
the eastern edge. Two fierce old bulls with very long, sharp horns were
on the outskirts, as if they were mounting guard, while the cows and
calves were on the inside near the lake.

Robert felt sure that the animals, although unharried by man, would
prove wary. For the sake of sport he hoped that it would be so, and,
using all the skill that he had learned in his long association with
Willet and Tayoga, he crept down through the woods. The bulls would be
too tough, and as he wanted a fat young cow it would be necessary for
him to go to the very edge of the thickets that hemmed in the little
savanna on which they were grazing.

The wind was blowing from him toward the herd and the bulls very soon
took alarm, holding up their heads, sniffing and occasionally shaking
their formidable horns. Robert picked a fat young cow in the grass
almost at the water's edge as his targe