thinks he's found a regular meal, we'll heave over the big piece
attached to the hook. He'll nab it in a hurry, and then his guileless
and unsuspicious nature will receive a sudden shock."

"But how will you get him on board?" asked Bill.

"If he's a big fellow, we'll not," was the answer, "unless we can get
him near enough to stun him with a hatchet. Even on board a big ship the
men often have to attach the rope to a windlass to draw the big fellows
in while they're still full of fight. Even if he were stunned, I don't
think that all of us pulling together could lift his dead weight on
board the _Ariel_."

"Then what would we do with him?" asked Teddy.

"We'd have to tow him astern until we could run in somewhere and pull
him ashore," answered Lester. "That's what the fishermen round here
usually do when they hook one. Once get him on the beach, and the rest
is easy."

"Perhaps we'll have a shark steak for supper," said Teddy.

"Perhaps, but I wouldn't recommend it," said Lester, with a grimace.
"I've tasted it and I must admit that it's pretty rank. I wouldn't care
to have it as a steady diet, unless I were starving and couldn't get
anything else. The Chinese make soup of its fins though, and they say
that it's dandy."

"You say you'd try to stun him with a hatchet," said Bill, the skeptic.
"But suppose you couldn't get him near enough for that?"

"Then we'd try something else," replied Lester. "Here, Teddy, take the
tiller for a minute."

Teddy did as requested, and Lester, reaching down into the cabin, drew
out and displayed to the astonished eyes of the boys a long harpoon.

CHAPTER XV

CAPTURING THE SHARK

"Where on earth did you get that harpoon?" asked Fred.

"It belongs to father," was Lester's answer. "He shipped on board a
whaler once and made a three-year cruise. He was the head harpooner of
the first mate's boat and many's the time this old harpoon has struck a
ninety barrel whale. Dad has any number of yarns to spin about it, and
some day I'll set him going and you'll hear them all."

"That'll be dandy!" exclaimed Teddy. "There's nothing stirs me up so
much as a whaling story. I've often thought I'd like to make a voyage on
a whaler when I am old enough."

"There's a good deal of romance and excitement about it," admitted
Lester, "but it's very hard and dangerous work. A man takes his life in
his hands when he ships for such a cruise."

"This certainly looks as though it meant