nvas
flapping and the slings and trusses of the yards creaking with the roll;
the men, rendered languid by the heat, were making such show as they
were able of being busy on various odd jobs about the decks or aloft;
and the man at the wheel had lashed it and was leaning upon it more than
half-asleep. Ritson, apparently for want of something better to do, was
seated on the main-topmast cross-trees, with the ship's telescope in his
hand, scrutinising the motions of the distant schooner, whose tiny
"royal" was now visible from the deck, gleaming white as snow on the
extreme verge of the horizon.

Noting all these things at a glance, George turned to saunter aft,
thinking that on such a perfectly calm day, and with such still water,
he might, by leaning well out over the taffrail, get a glimpse of the
ship's bottom and see whether it had fouled at all, or whether the
copper showed any signs of wrinkling. Arrived at the taffrail, he
leaned well out over it, and peered down into the water. The first
thing which attracted his notice was the deep, pure, beautiful
ultramarine tint of the water, as he gazed far down into its
unfathomable depths; the next was, the presence of a long greyish-brown
object under the ship's counter, which had escaped his notice at first
in consequence of its being in the deepest shadow of the hull. A moment
sufficed to satisfy him that it was a huge shark; and as the creature
caught sight of him, and with a barely perceptible movement of its fins,
backed out a foot or two from under the ship, as if in preparation to
make a dart at him in case he should fall into the water, George
shuddered at the thought of what might have been his or Walford's fate,
had the monster been in the neighbourhood of the ship a few hours
earlier.

Sliding his body gently inboard again, Leicester turned to the dozing
helmsman, and exclaimed--

"Here, you Ned; rouse up, man. There's a big shark under the counter,
so get out the shark-hook, ask the cook for a piece of good fat pork,
and muster the watch aft in readiness to haul him inboard, in case we
can coax him into swallowing the bait."

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

A SUSPICIOUS SAIL.

The man hurried away joyously to do George's bidding, hailing his
comrades aloft to "knock off work and come shark-fishing, all you
sea-dogs aloft there," as soon as he had placed a sufficiently
respectful distance between himself and his skipper. There is no sport
or pastime in whic