pidity of a falling curtain. The western sky no longer afforded a
beacon to steer by, and Leslie found himself obliged to turn round and
steer backwards, as it were, by the brig. But in the fast gathering
gloom she soon became too indefinite an object to be reliable, Leslie
was therefore obliged to face about once more and select a star for his
guidance.

The men had been pulling with a will for a full half-hour when suddenly
the man who was wielding the bow oar arrested his movements, holding his
dripping blade just clear of the surface of the water, as he cried--

"Hark! did ye hear that, sir?"

"What?" demanded Leslie.

The other three men suspended their efforts as the first man replied--

"Why, I thought I heard somebody singin' out, somewheres. Ay, I was
right," he continued, as a faint "Hillo!" came pealing softly across the
darkling surface of the water.

"Hillo!" answered Leslie, sending a stentorian shout ahead through his
hollow hands.

"Boat ahoy!" came the answering shout.

"Give way briskly, men," cried Leslie; "the sound seems to be coming
from straight ahead. We shall get a sight of something now in a few
minutes."

The men resumed their pulling with a will, encouraged by the fact that
the shouts kept up by the unseen man were rapidly becoming clearer, more
audible, and evidently nearer. Suddenly a dark mass loomed up ahead and
another cry told them that they were close aboard the wreckage.

"Oars!" commanded Leslie. The men ceased pulling, and the individual
upon the wreckage shouted--

"Boat ahoy! you'll have to pull right round this raffle, and come up on
t'other side afore you'll be able to take me off. You can't get
alongside of me from where you are; there's too much yard-arm and
splintered spar stickin' out in that direction. And I daren't jump
overboard and swim to you, for I've been blockaded all day by sharks--
see, there's one of them now, close alongside of ye!"

And looking over the side, the crew of the boat beheld, revealed as a
shape of fire in the highly phosphorescent sea, a monster of fully
twenty feet in length or more, swimming rapidly along, a few feet below
the surface; while, some half-a-dozen yards away, a second suddenly
revealed his presence.

"All right," answered Leslie, "stay where you are; we will pull round to
the other side."

So said, so done; and five minutes later they had got the man--the only
occupant of the wreckage as it proved--safe aboar