have to drink the ocean and eat their shoes
before anybody rescues them."

At this Mun Bun set up a wail. It seemed that his shoes were brand new
and he was very proud of them. He would not consider eating them for a
moment!

"Never mind," said Rose, hugging him. "If you get so very hungry before
Russ rescues us, you can chew on your belt. That is what Laddie means."

Mun Bun observed his belt with round eyes. It seemed to him, and he
confessed it to Rose, that he would have to be awfully hungry to chew
that belt. The others entered into the spirit of the play and when Vi
chanced to step off the raft her twin and Margy seized her and screamed.

"You'll be drowned, Vi Bunker!" said Margy.

"You'll more than get your feet wet if you don't stay on the raft," her
twin scolded. "And, then, maybe there are sharks."

"Sharks?" put in Margy.

"Yes, big sharks."

"What do they do?" asked Margy, who had not heard so much about this
castaway play as the older children.

"Big fish," said Laddie promptly.

"I like fish," Margy announced. "You know, Grandma Bell had goldfish.
They were pretty."

"And I like fish to eat," said Vi. "Are sharks good to eat?"

"Maybe they will eat you," warned Laddie, who had entered into the play
with all his thought and interest.

"Oh, Laddie Bunker! They wouldn't," cried Vi.

"Well, they might. Anyway, you've got to be afraid of the sharks and not
step off the raft."

Meanwhile Russ had gone over to the lifeboat. He had not asked even his
friend, the quartermaster, if he could play in that boat. But he saw no
reason why he could not, as nobody seemed to be using it.

The canvas cover was tied down with many strings; but the knots slipped
very easily and the boy pulled out three of the knots and then laid back
a corner of the canvas. It was dark inside the boat, and before Russ
crept into it as he intended, he bent over the gunwale and peered in.

Suddenly he gasped, and pulled his head back. He was startled, but Russ
Bunker was a courageous boy. He had seen something--or he thought he had
seen something--squirming in the brown darkness inside the boat.

He waited a little, and then put his head under the canvas and took a
long look. Was there something or somebody there? Russ was determined to
find out!

CHAPTER IX

RUSS'S SECRET

Russ Bunker looked very funny--Rose said he did--when he suddenly came
back to the raft. Vi and Margy shouted to him that he would be drow