art them. It was
that made me plead so hard for Stumps to be taken with us, because I
felt sure Slagg would not go without him, and although we might easily
have done without Stumps, we could not have got on so well without
Slagg."

"I'm not so sure of that, my boy. Your opinion of him is too high,
though I admit him to be a first-rate youth. Indeed, if it were not so,
he should not be here.--Was that a shark's fin alongside?"

"Yes, I think so. Cook has been throwing scraps overboard, I suppose.--
See, there goes an empty meat-tin."

As he spoke the article named rose into the air, and fell with a splash
in the water. At the same time Jim Slagg was seen to clamber on the
bulwarks and look over.

"Come here--look alive, Stumps!" he shouted.

Stumps, whose proper name, it is but fair to state, was John Shanks,
clambered clumsily to his friend's side just in time to see a shark open
its horrid jaws and swallow the meat-tin.

"Well now, I never!" exclaimed Slagg. "He didn't even smell it to see
if it was to his taste."

"P'r'aps he's swallowed so many before," suggested Stumps, "that he
takes for granted it's all right."

"Well it's on'y flavour; and he has caught a Tartar this time," returned
the other, "unless, maybe, tin acts like pie-crust does on human
vitals."

The low deep voice of the captain was heard at this moment ordering a
reef to be taken in the top-sails, and then it began to strike Robin and
Sam that the breeze was freshening into something like a gale, and that
there were some ominous-looking clouds rising on the windward horizon.
Gazing at this cloud-bank for a few minutes, the captain turned and
ordered the top-sails to be close-reefed, and most of the other sails
either furled or reduced to their smallest size.

He was in good time, and the vessel was ready for the gale, when it
rushed down on them hissing like a storm-fiend.

The good ship bent before the blast like a willow, but rose again, and,
under the influence of able seamanship, went bravely on her course,
spurning the billows from her swelling bows.

"What a thing it is to know that there is a good hand at the helm in
times of danger!" remarked Sam as he and our hero stood under the
shelter of the starboard bulwarks, holding on with both hands to the
rigging, while the rushing waves tossed them on high or let them drop in
the troughs of the seas; "I should feel safe with our captain in any
circumstances."

"So should I,"