d. The hatch listed
dangerously on its balance. Then in a tone of unutterable terror which
curdled her listener's blood, she cried,

"Look! look! It is coming again!"

It was. Emboldened by their apparent helplessness, the tiger of the sea
was bent upon making another attempt to obtain his prey. The grisly
snout, the cruel eye, the white belly, the long glutinous tail, every
detail of the sea-demon stood clear, as it rushed straight through the
water with an unswerving velocity, which should throw it right upon the
hatch. But, with lightning swiftness, it sank, and, as it passed
underneath, again that shock was felt, this time with increased
violence. Then, as they looked forth, behold several of those gliding,
glistening, triangular fins, cleaving without effort in their stealthy,
creeping way through the mirror-like surface. Here, indeed, with only a
few square feet of submerged planking between them and destruction in
the most hideous and horrible of forms, they realised their utter
helplessness. The ravening monsters closed in nearer and nearer.

And now as the very lowest depths of despair seemed reached, hope dawned
once more, faintly enkindled, but still, hope. Low down upon the far
horizon hung a dark vaporous cloud. It grew, waxing larger and larger.
The smoke of a steamship.

Both had seen it, both with their heads on a level with the surface of
the sea. Then came another jarring shock, followed immediately by
another, and a rushing swirl as the tigers of the deep, now growing bold
in their impatience, as though divining that their prey would soon be
snatched from them, darted to and fro, striving to capsize the cranky
support.

"We are saved! But--will they see us? Will they see us?" gasped Mona,
in agony, straining her eyes upon the now rapidly advancing object. The
latter became plainer and plainer every moment, and resolved itself into
the masts and yards, then the funnel and hull, of a large steamship.
And the course she was steering could not fail to bring her very near.

But the heads of two people do not constitute a very prominent object of
attention on the surface of the wide sea, even at a short distance. The
vessel drew nearer and nearer, till she was almost abeam. But not
nearly so close as they had at first expected.

By now they were in the midst of a perfect shoal of the ravenous
monsters; black fins glistening above the surface; dull, tumbling, snaky
shapes, writhing,