with laughter; but his merriment was abruptly put
a stop to by the gurgling noise occurring close to where he stood.

"Where'll it spout this time, I wonder?" he said, looking about with
some anxiety and preparing to run. Suddenly there came a loud hiss or
snort; a fierce spout of water burst up between Peterkin's legs, blew
him off his feet, enveloped him in its spray, and hurled him to the
ground. He fell with so much violence that we feared he must have
broken some of his bones, and ran anxiously to his assistance; but
fortunately he had fallen on a clump of tangled herbage, in which he lay
sprawling in a most deplorable condition.

It was now our turn to laugh; but as we were not yet quite sure that he
was unhurt, and as we knew not when or where the next spout might arise,
we assisted him hastily to jump up and hurry from the spot.

I may here add that, although I am quite certain that the spout of water
was very strong, and that it blew Peterkin completely off his legs, I am
not quite certain of the exact height to which it lifted him, being
somewhat startled by the event, and blinded partially by the spray, so
that my power of observation was somewhat impaired for the moment.

"What's to be done now?" asked Peterkin ruefully.

"Make a fire, lad, and dry ourselves," replied Jack.

"And here is material ready to our hand," said I, picking up a dried
branch of a tree as we hurried up to the woods.

In about an hour after this mishap our clothes were again dried. While
they were hanging up before the fire we walked down to the beach, and
soon observed that these curious spouts took place immediately after the
fall of a huge wave, never before it; and, moreover, that the spouts did
not take place excepting when the billow was an extremely large one.
From this we concluded that there must be a subterraneous channel in the
rock into which the water was driven by the larger waves, and finding no
way of escape except through these small holes, was thus forced up
violently through them. At any rate, we could not conceive any other
reason for these strange waterspouts, and as this seemed a very simple
and probable one, we forthwith adopted it.

"I say, Ralph, what's that in the water? Is it a shark?" said Jack just
as we were about to quit the place.

I immediately ran to the overhanging ledge of rock, from which he was
looking down into the sea, and bent over it. There I saw a very faint,
pale object of a g