olding and he disappeared beneath the surface.

"Gone!" cried Wriggs, "and I did git tight hold on him, too."

"Pull!" shouted the mate, and as the oars dipped sharply the boat
followed a little wave of water, which ran along in front, and out of
which Smith's head suddenly appeared, and directly after his bands
grasped the gunwale of the boat.

"Where's the turtle?" cried Oliver, laughing.

"I did get a hold on her, sir," panted Smith; "but she went off like a
steamer, and dragged me underneath. Ah! there she goes," he continued,
as he looked toward where the little wave showed that the turtle was
swimming rapidly through the troubled water.

"Here, quick, in with you!" cried Oliver, excitedly, as Smith made a
jump and climbed--or rather tumbled in--over the side, and none too
soon, for the back fin of a shark suddenly appeared a few yards away,
and as the man slowly subsided into the boat there was a gleam of creamy
white in the water, and a dull thud up against the bows.

"The brute!" cried the mate, as the shark glided out of sight, and then
displayed its back fin again above water. "A warning that against
bathing."

"Yes, and a very narrow escape!" cried Panton.

"Sarves me right, sir," said Smith, standing up in the bows to wring
himself as much as he could without stripping. "Comes o' trying to make
turtle soup of t'other thing."

"Pull away, my lads," said the mate, smiling.

"If it's all the same to you, sir," said Wriggs, "mightn't us try and
ketch that Jack shark for trying to kill our mate?"

"Oh, yes! if you can do so, by all means; but not to-day. Now,
gentlemen, look just ahead. What do you say to that?"

"It's where the mist bank runs into the sea," cried Lane, excitedly; for
there, to their right, the vapour rose up among the cocoa-nut trees
which just there seemed to be half dead, while all around the boat the
clear water was in a state of ebullition, tiny globules of gas running
up from below, and breaking on the surface.

"Runs right away to the reef," cried Panton.

"Ay, sir, and perhaps far enough beyond," said the mate. "Pull hard, my
lads, and let's get through."

"The coral seems to be all dead," said Drew, "and there are no weeds."

"Not a sign of fish either," said Lane, whose face was over the side.
"Plenty of great clam shells, but they are gaping open, and the
occupants dead--ah!"

He drew his head back sharply, for he had been suddenly seized with a
catching of t