, to say the least of it, yet they dared not move out of their
hiding-place just then, or the pirates would be certain to see them
making the attempt. The inaction was beginning--nay, had long since
begun--to tell on their nerves, and poor Roger felt as though he could
scarcely refrain from shrieking aloud, so great was the tension. And
those terrible fins were again gathering about them! One by one they
came edging back, ever nearer and nearer. At last the fugitives could
endure it no longer, and, taking the corpse by the shoulders and turning
it into a more favourable position for his purpose, Bevan said: "They'll
wait no longer. Now, when I push this 'ere dead body off, jump for your
lives back on to the ledge. We must risk being seen; for they sharks
don't mean to be denied."

He then gave the corpse a violent push seaward, and the three made a
simultaneous scramble for the safety of the ledge. Jake was up first,
and extended his hand to Roger, while behind them they heard the
clashing and snapping of jaws, and the sudden rushing wash of water, as
the body of Gomez was torn to pieces by the hungry monsters.

The commotion in the water was terrible, and horribly suggestive, as the
sharks snapped and struggled and fought for their share of the prey; and
they thought that surely the pirates must hear, and, hearing, return to
see what all the noise was about. Roger was out now, and only Bevan
remained in the water. Jake and Roger stretched out their hands, Bevan
grasped them with his own, and, with a simultaneous pull, out he came,
landing on his knees on the rock. But only just in time; for even as he
left the water a huge shark, of at least twenty-five feet in length,
came dashing at him with such furious determination that he ran his
great snout, with its rows of shining saw-edged teeth, right up on the
ledge, so close as actually to graze Bevan's body. The man, however,
hastily sprang aside, capsizing Irwin and Roger, and the three fell
pell-mell into the hollow in the rocks which had served as their former
hiding-place.

Safe at last; but what a narrow and providential escape! And now to
discover whether the pirates had seen them. Jake climbed up to his
former coign of vantage, and as soon as he clapped his eye to the
peep-hole he held up his hand in warning. Roger shuddered. "After
all," thought he, "after those hairbreadth escapes, have they seen us,
and are they coming back to take us?"

Jake