well hisself. About a hour a'terwards he
goes below again; and by and by the steward comes for'ard, lookin'
pretty frightened, I can tell ye, and says as the skipper is sick, too.

"`I wonder whether there's a shark come for him, as well as for the
second mate,' says one of the men, jokin' like. `Run aft, steward,'
says he, `and look over the taffrail, and see.'

"The steward did as he was told; and presently he comes for'ard again,
as white as a ghost; and:--

"`There's two of 'em now,' says he. And sure enough, shipmates, when we
went aft and had a look for ourselves, there was two sharks just playin'
about under the starn, scullin' here and there, lazy-like, but never
goin' very far away.

"I told the mate of this, and p'inted out the brutes to him; but he
didn't seem a bit put out by it; he just laughed and said:--

"`Then the skipper's goose is cooked, too; and I shall have to take
charge of the ship myself!'

"And, as he said it, mates, you may believe me or not, as you like, but
up comes a third shark, and jines company with the two that was standin'
off and on.

"`Hillo!' says the mate, now lookin' frightened enough; `what's the
meanin' of this here, I wonder? Three of 'em,' he says; `one for Hobbs,
and one for the cap'n: but who's the third one a'ter?'

"Mates, what I'm goin' to tell you is as true as that I'm sittin' here
on this here thwart: the mate was took ill that very night; and the next
day he follered poor Mr Hobbs and the skipper over the rail; and then
the three sharks left us. And a week later the brig went ashore on the
coast, about the middle of as dark a night as ever you see, and me and
two more was all as managed to reach the sand-hills alive."

This weird story, told with all the impressiveness of a man who knew
himself to be speaking the truth--emphasised as it was by the persistent
presence of those two remorseless brutes under our own stern,--affected
the listeners powerfully; and at its close there was not one of us, I
will venture to say, but was firmly convinced that at least two of our
party were doomed.

We continued pulling to the eastward until nearly midnight that night,
relieving each other at the oars at short intervals, when, suddenly, one
of the men--Peter Green by name--dropped his oar and, with a choking
cry, rolled off his thwart and fell prone into the bottom of the boat.
His place was immediately taken by another; but within a quarter of an
hour this man, t