und in a circle
and bore down upon the struggling swimmer, while at the same time
preparations were made to lower a boat as soon as they should be near
enough.

"They're going to save him!" cried Mabel, half-sobbing in her excitement.
"Oh, Joe, they're going to save him after all!"

It seemed as though there were no doubt of this now, for the man was
evidently a strong swimmer and seemed to be maintaining himself without
great effort, and it was certain that within the next few minutes the
boat, already filled with oarsmen and swaying at the davits, ready to be
lowered, would reach him.

Suddenly Clara, with a stifled scream, clutched at Jim's arm.

"Oh, Jim!" she cried, "what is that? Look, look----"

Jim looked and turned pale under his tan.

"Great heavens!" he cried. "It's a shark!"

The cry was taken up by scores.

"A shark! A shark!"

There, cleaving the water and coming toward the swimmer like an arrow at
its mark, was a great black dorsal fin which bespoke the presence of the
pirate of the seas.

The steamer had lessened speed in order to lower its boat, but the
momentum under which it was carried it within twenty yards of the
castaway.

Almost instantly the ship's boat struck the water, and the sinewy backs of
the sailors bent almost double as they drove it toward the swimmer.

From the crowded deck they could see his face now, pale and dripping, but
lighted with a gleam of hope as he saw the boat approaching. But the
horrified onlookers saw something else, that ominous, awful fin, that came
rushing on like a relentless fate toward its intended prey.

Some of the women were sobbing, others almost fainting, while the men,
pale and with gritted teeth, groaned at their helplessness.

It was a question now of which would reach the luckless man first, the
boat or the shark. The boat was nearer and the men were rowing like
demons, but the shark was swifter, coming on like an express train.

There must have been something in those faces high above him that warned
the man of some impending peril. He cast a swift look behind him, and then
in frantic terror redoubled his efforts to reach the boat.

"Oh, Joe, they'll be too late! They'll never reach him in time!" sobbed
Mabel. "Oh, can't we do anything to help him?"

Joe, as frantic as she, looked wildly about him. His eyes fell on a heavy
piece of iron, left on the deck by some seaman who had been repairing the
windlass. Like a flash he grabbed it.