you must be careful not to slip."

She caught his arm, little knowing the thrill her clasp sent through
his frame. This simple gesture of her confidence was bitter-sweet. He
resolutely closed his eyes to the knowledge that this might be their
last talk.

"I shall not fall," she said. "I am a good mountaineer. I learnt the
trick of it in Cumberland. Come with me. There is a pleasant breeze
blowing from the sea."

They climbed down. Neither spoke until they stood on the curving ledge
that had proved their salvation. Though the tide was rising again, the
heavy sea was gone. The current still created some spume and noise as
it swept past the reef, but its anger had vanished with the gale.
Beyond the fringe of broken water a slight swell only served to mirror
in countless facets the tender light of a perfect sunset. The eastern
horizon was a broad line of silver. Nearer, the shadow of the island
created bands of purest green and ultramarine.

They reached the place from which the Brazilians had thrown the rope.
They could hear the quiet plash of the water in the cleft. Piled
against a low-lying rock were the funnel and other debris of the
_Andromeda_. The black hull was plainly visible beneath the surface.
Even while they were looking at the wreck a huge fish curled his ten
feet of length with stealthy grace from out some dim recess; it might
be, perhaps, from out the crushed shell of the chart-room.

Hozier glanced at his companion. He half expected her to shrink back
appalled at this sinister sight; it was her destiny to surprise him not
once but many times during that amazing period.

"Is that a shark?" she asked quietly.

"Yes. . . . You stipulated for candor, you know."

"I had no notion that such a monster could move with so great elegance.
I think I would rather be eaten by a shark than lie at the bottom of
the sea like our poor vessel there."

"Even a shark would appreciate the compliment," he said.

Her eyes continued to watch the terrifying apparition until it prowled
into hidden depths again.

"I am not sorry I have seen it," she murmured. "It helps one to
understand. We are glib concerning the laws of nature, and seem to
regard them much as the printed regulations stuck on hackney carriages,
whatsoever they may be. Yet, how cruelly just they are! I suppose
that the finding of the ship's booty by that huge creature has given a
new span of life to some weaker fish."

Hozier did no