ul.

"Why, I thought you said it was useless," said Uncle John with a laugh,
"and yet you are afraid of it. Look here." He lighted a match and held
it close to the powder. A dark smoke arose that instantly extinguished
the little flame, and floated off, leaving a queer smell behind. That
was all.

"Perfectly harmless, captain," continued uncle, who had now recovered
his usual good nature. "Perfectly harmless unless you wet it. Then look
out."

The cook had made a sort of dumpling for dinner, and a great lot of it
remained. Uncle John took a mess of this dough, for it was little else,
squeezed it until it was quite dry and molded it into a ball. "Come with
me," he said, "and, Arthur, bring a plate of that dough with you." He
took the cans and we followed him to the deck. There he carefully
covered the ball of dough with the powder, and, going to the rail, threw
it as far as he could out over the placid sea. As the ball struck the
water there was a loud explosion and the spray was thrown high into the
air. The crew, who had been hanging over the port rail forward, turned
and rushed over to see what was up. Uncle John made another ball and
threw it with like result.

"Oh, houly torpeter!" growled one of the men, and they turned back to
their former places. Uncle John, now evidently anxious to give us
thorough proof of the value of his compound, was for throwing more
balls, when the boatswain, rolling aft, touched his hat, and said to the
captain:

"Please, sur, there's a big shark as has showed his fin hoff the port
bow, and if so be that the doctor'll wait a bit with his torpeters,
we'll show 'im some fun a-catchin' of it."

"All right, bo'sun," said the captain, and we all went over to the port
rail.

"There he is," said the captain, pointing to a sharp, black thing, that,
rising just above the water, was cutting quietly through it. "That is
his fin, and there's a big shark under it or I'm much mistaken."

The sailors had got a large hook, and had baited it with a piece of salt
beef, and made it fast to a stout line with a chain that the fish
couldn't bite off. This tempting morsel was flung overboard, and, as it
fell with a splash into the water, we saw the fin cut toward it, and
then disappear. The next instant there was a great tug at the rope.

"Hurrah! we've got 'um!" yelled the boatswain. "Walk away with 'im now,
my hearties."

A dozen sailors had manned the rope, and now started to drag the big
fish