sed and secured the port before any more of the
birds escaped. Then the rest of the watch came aft, running
helter-skelter at the hurried hail of the mate, and drove the rest of
the flock into their pen. Had there been the slightest chance of
capturing the runaways the Captain would have backed the main-topsail,
hove the ship to, and lowered the quarter-boat.

Meanwhile the wind had died out. The sails flapped lazily against the
mast, and the ship rolled sluggishly on the heaving bosom of old ocean.
The clouds rolled away, and the pitiless burning sun shone down on the
deck and dried up all the moisture on wood and rope in a few minutes. It
was one of those sudden meteorological changes so common in equatorial
latitudes. An awning was rigged up over the man at the wheel. The
skipper put on a huge _topee_, or Indian pith helmet, to shelter his
head from the sweltering rays which made the pitch boil and bubble up in
the seams of the main-deck, and promised plenty of work for the
carpenter's calking-irons.

The ducks, obeying a sort of homing instinct, I suppose, swam up to the
now almost motionless ship, and continued their sport nearly within a
stone's throw. Suddenly a bright idea struck the skipper.

"See the lee quarter-boat clear for lowering!" he shouted to the second
mate. Then he put his head down the cabin skylight and ordered the
steward to bring up his breech-loader and a lot of cartridges. The boat
was lowered and manned. A side ladder was rigged; the Captain with his
gun descended and took up a position in the bow, from which he directed
operations. The cockswain seized the tiller-ropes. "Shove off let fall
give way!" he cried, all in one breath, without any regard to
punctuation, so excited was he, and in such a hurry to get within
gunshot of the ducks. If he could not catch them alive, he meant to have
them dead.

The boat was headed for the flock. When within easy range the skipper
let them have it right and left. His aim was so good that he brought
down three. It took some time to pick them up, which gave the scared
flock an opportunity to get out of gunshot. None others, as it happened,
were fated to fall victims to the deadly breech-loader of our
sportsman-skipper. The dorsal fins of six sharks were observed sticking
up above the surface of the water, and converging from different
directions on the doomed ducks. Sharks are abundant in equatorial
waters, and they follow ships for miles. Some of them