s over his companion. As he slowly uplifts his arm its shrunken
muscles swell beneath the skin as though they would burst it, his talon-
like fingers close with a grip of steel round the haft of the upraised
knife, Sibylla closes her eyes in patient expectancy of the stroke, the
blade quivers and flashes in the sunlight, and Captain Blyth, with a cry
of horror, starts forward--to awake at the sound of his own voice and to
find himself at the edge of the raft, in the very act of leaping into
the jaws of a shark which is eyeing him hungrily from the water
alongside! He luckily checks his spring in time. To seize the boat-
hook and strike savagely at the waiting shark with its point follows as
a matter of course; and then the skipper piously returns thanks to God
not only for his escape, but also that the events he has just been
witnessing are nothing more substantial than an ugly dream.

Blyth's next act is to haul in the lines which have dropped from his
nerveless hands during sleep, and which would unquestionably have been
lost had he not taken the precaution to make them fast; and he finds to
his chagrin that not only the bait but also the hooks have been carried
off. He therefore neatly coils up his fishing-tackle preparatory to
shaping a course for home; for the moon is on the very verge of the
western horizon, and he knows therefore that it is past midnight.
Moreover, though the breeze is rather fresher than it was and the
horizon is clear, there is a murkiness in the atmosphere overhead which
portends a change of weather; and as he looks knowingly about him he
gives audible expression to his opinion that there will be but little
work done in the ship-yard on the morrow.

The grapnel is lifted, and the skipper, attaching the handle to the
winch, begins to mast-head the yard of the solitary sail which propels
the raft. As he does so his eyes are directed towards the moon, now
slowly sinking beneath the horizon. Ha! what is that? The labour at
the winch is suspended, a hasty turn is taken with the halliard, and
Captain Blyth strains forward, his eyes shaded by both hands the better
to observe that black spot which is slowly gliding athwart the moon's
pale face. Little need is there, though, for him to look so intently to
ascertain what that black spot really is; it is more for the purpose of
assuring himself that his eyes are not playing him false, or that he is
not once more the victim of a dream. No; this i