for it had now passed us-aye, and kept swimming, or rather darting, through the water, backwards, forwards, and around the boat, with its hideously great goggle eyes fixed upon our crew.

"It looks as if it were making choice of one among us," said I.

Aye, aye," said Bob; "the black boy in course; the brutes 'll never take white flesh while they can get black."

So Fosforus seemed to think, for he trembled terribly as the fish darted around the boat; but with a strange courage, probably arising from intense fear, he hung half way over the stern, with his long, gleaming knife in his hand, as if ready for an encounter.

"Bah! it is useless to provoke the brute," said I; but before I could finish the sentence the monster made a dart out of the water in the direction of Fosforus, but, fortunately, with more force than calculation, passed the boy, and fell into the bottom of the boat. Again, fortunately, the latter had been prepared by experience for such a feat, and in an instant the stunned fish lay writhing and plunging, lashing its tail, but with fifty knife-wounds in its stomach and under its fins; for, the moment it had alighted in the boat, the boy had commenced striking it with his knife, and had so often repeated his blows that, although it flounced terribly, there was but little to be

THE WORTH OF A SHARK.

35

feared save from the lashing of its tail, which Bob, who had often seen sharks taken, hacked off with a hatchet which luckily happened to be in the boat. After which Fosforus, as if he had no doubt that the fish had been solely bent upon making a meal of him, shook his knife at it, saying

"He! he! debel ob shark, neber again mistake a white boy and a 'ropean for a black man.” Truly you have had a lucky escape, boy. But, come, let us heave the carcass overboard," said I.

"Sar Excellency; no. Debel want makee meal of Fosforus, so Fosforus take him shore and makee 'um into dollar, den makee dollar into meal," was the reply.

Aye, aye; the boy's right, Master Tom. We will take the carcass ashore; for it's only fair the boy should sell it to the natives, who will make oil of his liver, dry and prepare his fins, and sell them again to the Chinamen, who will make them into shagreen."

"So be it. But let's pull ashore with all speed, and in the meantime keep a look-out fore and aft, for another such an adventure may not prove so fortunate," said I, gazing at the brute, which was some twelve feet long, and so heavy that it required three or four men to lift it.

Then, as they pulled lustily at the oars, and

we kept a look-out for any of the shark's family who might be tempted to come and fetch his carcass, Bob said

"Look you, Master Tom: one of us was nearly losing the number of his mess. It might have been me, it might have been you, in which case it would have been owing to sailing on a Friday."

"I don't see that, Bob," said I, laughing; "for, if there had been any truth in your superstitious nonsense, we should undoubtedly have been the victims, but which we certainly are not."

"But look you, Master Tom, though you are misbelieving in such things, you can't go for to deny that there was something in the black boy's omen; or how is it, d'ye see, that he was so near being at this very time in that shark's stomach ?" said Bob.

"Tut, tut! It is this very near, and not quite, that proves you both wrong; but bother such nonsense," said I, adding, "Now tell me, Bob, do you really believe that sharks, when they have the choice, prefer black to white men ?"

"Sartain sure. Do ye see, the brute is always cunning enough to know black from white; and this is how I came to know it. It is now about thirty-five years agone, when I was little more than a youngster on board a King's ship, a cruising in the West Indies. Well, our cook was a nigger called Cæsar, and very fond of him we all