beams. "There, go on, Rogers, only take
great care."

"I just will that, sir," said the man, as his messmates cheered; and
taking the noose in his hand he stepped along the plank leading from the
rocks to the vessel. "When I say `_now_, lads,' mind you let him feel
you directly; and haul him out."

"Ay, ay!" cried the men; and then every eye was fixed upon the active
young fellow, whose white feet seemed to cling to the wet planking upon
which he stood, and from which he stepped cautiously out upon one of the
beams that curved over from side to side.

Hardly was he well out, and stooping down peering into the water, than
Syd uttered a warning cry, and the man bounded back as the shark,
attracted by the sight of his white legs, came up from behind, and
glided exactly over the spot where he had been standing.

"Ah! would yer!" shouted Rogers; and the men roared with laughter.
"This here's fishing with your own legs for bait," continued the young
sailor. "Well, it's got to be who's sharpest--him or me."

"I think you had better not venture," said Syd, hesitating again.

"Oh! don't say that, sir. We shall all be horrid disappointed if we
don't get him."

"But see what a narrow escape you had."

"Well, yes, sir; I wasn't quite sharp enough, but there was no harm
done."

"Go on," said Syd, unwillingly, as he caught Roylance's eye; and
hurrying by for fear that the permission should be withdrawn, the man
stepped quickly back on to the beam, keeping a sharp look-out to right
and left.

"I see you, you beggar," he said; "come on."

The shark accepted the invitation, and made quite a leap, passing over
the beam again, diving down, snowing his white, and swam twenty feet
away, to turn with difficulty amongst the submerged timber forward, and
returned aiming clumsily at the white legs which tempted him, but
missing his goal, for the young sailor nimbly leaped ashore.

"I shan't get him that way," he said. "Here, give us something white."

There was nothing white handy but blocks of coral, and Rogers solved the
difficulty by selecting a hat and taking a handspike.

He tried his plan at least a dozen times without result, and lost two
good chances; but the man was too clever for the shark at last. Rogers
had scanned pretty accurately the course the brute would pursue, and had
noted that when once it gave a vigorous sweep with its tail to send
itself forward, there was no variation in its course.

So waiting