mez were staring and starting
out of his head with mortal terror at this utterly unexpected attack.
Jake drew his knife. Roger shook his head violently in dissent, but
Jake whispered hastily: "It must be, sir; we can't help it; it is his
life or ours!"

Roger turned his head away, and the next moment he heard a horrible
choke and gurgle, while the body writhed violently as he held the arms.
A flood of something hot rushed over his hands and arms, and he felt
quite sick.

"Now, sir, quick!" said Jake. "It's our only chance. There's an
overhanging ledge of rock here. We must take the provisions, and this
'ere corpse, and git into the water, floatin' under the ledge until they
goes; for when this chap Gomez is found to be missin', they'll search
and find us if we don't do as I say. We must risk the sharks!"

There was clearly nothing else for it; so they slipped in, taking the
corpse with them, and all got under the ledge--which quite concealed
them--and supported the dead body, that it might not float away and
betray them.

The proceeding was fraught with danger, as sharks swarmed in those
waters, and the blood that was oozing from the Spaniard's body would be
almost certain to attract those monsters of the sea,--their scent for
blood being very keen. The flesh of the fugitives crept, and the
knowledge that one of them might be seized kept them in a state of
perfectly agonising suspense. They had been in for some time, and the
position was becoming unendurable when: "Gomez, Gomez, where are you?
Hasten, man; we do not want to wait here all day!" came from the very
ledge underneath which they were floating, and holding, meanwhile, the
corpse of the man who was then being called by name.

"Where can he be, curse him?" growled the same voice. "What has become
of the lazy hound? Carrajo, I will flog him when we get on board!
Gomez!"

There was, of course, no reply.

"He may have fallen in and been drowned, or taken by a shark,
perchance," suggested another voice.

More oaths followed, together with a lengthy dissertation on Gomez's
ancestors, both immediate and remote. At this moment Bevan gave vent to
a suppressed gasp, and, following his gaze, the others saw the dorsal
fins of several sharks which had evidently scented the blood still
draining from the body of the slain man, and were now searching for
their prey. Then the concealed listeners heard--from someone who had
evidently been to the edge of the