d
overboard but for the iron claw which he held high, while a purpose
gleamed in his eye which made Pedro peaceful. But Dick felt that
Pedro was half right and he set to work studying sponges until he
knew them almost as well as his teacher. His strength and skill with
the sponge hook were less than the Spaniard's, but his eye was
quicker and Pedro's chronic growls were often changed to grunts of
approval. When the surface of the water was ruffled by a breeze it
was needful to use the water-glass. Then Pedro sat with his head in
the bucket, studying the bottom, and when he took up the heavy pole
which lay on the thwarts of the dingy and dipped it vertically in
the water, it was the duty of Dick to stop sculling at once. But
once while Dick was sculling and looking for sponges he saw gliding
beneath the dingy, a whip-ray, the most beautiful member of the ray
family. Shaped like a butterfly, its back is covered with small,
light rings on a black background. Its long, slim tail is like the
lash of a coach-whip and at its base is a row of little spears with
many barbs, which are capable of inflicting exceedingly painful
wounds. The roof of the mouth and the tongue of the fish are hard as
ivory and shell-fish are ground between them as rock is pulverized by
the jaws of a quartz-crusher. As Billy watched the graceful swaying
of the body of the whip-ray under the impulse of its wings, a
wandering shark came upon it. In its first rush the tiger of the sea
almost caught the beautiful creature, which fluttered for a hundred
yards upon the surface of the water, with the jaws of its pursuer
opening and closing within a few inches of its body.

Dick was so busy watching the chase and so earnest in his sympathy
with the frightened, fleeing whip-ray that he quite forgot his
duties. He was reminded of them when Pedro, who had been frantically
signaling him, took his head from the bucket and made a speech in
Spanish to Dick that must have used up all the bad adjectives in
that language. Dick's conscience hampered him so much that he was
quite unable to reply fittingly, and the battle of words was won by
Pedro. The dingy drifted so far during the discussion that they were
unable to find the sheep's wool sponge that Pedro had seen, and
which he now described as the finest one ever found.

Each day the spongers in the dingies worked farther from the sloop
and each day more time was lost when the sloop made its round to
pick up the spong