stonishment at the
amazing twistings and writhings of the decapitated body, and then
George, taking advantage of a momentary cessation of movement, dashed
into the shallow water, seized the creature with both hands by its
quivering tail, and drew it ashore. Then, impaling the severed and
still gasping head upon his sword blade, and inviting his two friends to
help him, the trio, with some difficulty, raised the still convulsively
writhing and twitching body upon their shoulders and, thus heavily
loaded, made the best of their way back to their boat.

The sun had already sunk behind the high land in the direction where
their ship lay, when the adventurers, with their strange prize bestowed
in the bottom of the boat, emerged from the river into the open waters
of the gulf, and shortly afterward the darkness swept down upon them
with the extraordinary suddenness peculiar to the tropics. But they
cared nothing for that, for they now had a fair wind to carry them back
to camp, the heavens were thickly studded with stars, shining with that
exceeding brilliancy and splendour which is also peculiar to the
tropics, and the men in camp had kindled a fire on the beach as a beacon
to guide them back; they therefore had no difficulty in finding their
way.

But their day's adventures were not yet quite at an end. For as the
boat slid smoothly along under the impulse of the fast waning wind Cole,
the chaplain, who was sitting on one of the side thwarts, while the
surgeon balanced him on the other side of the boat, suddenly looked up
from the water, into the dark depths of which he had been gazing, with
the startled exclamation:

"Lord ha' mercy! what be that, now? Look, cap'n, look overside, do 'e,
and tell me, if you can, what monstrous thing we've a-run foul of now."
And as he spoke he pointed straight downward.

George, thus adjured, leaned over the gunwale and directed his gaze
downward. What he saw was startling enough to cause him to suddenly
shift his helm, with the result that the sail jibed over unexpectedly
and all but capsized the boat. Luckily the wind had been dropping
steadily for the last half-hour, so they escaped with no worse
consequence than a gallon or two of water over the gunwale.

But what was it that caused young Saint Leger to so far forget himself?
Simply a great shape, made brilliantly luminous by its passage through
the water as it swam immediately underneath the boat, keeping pace with
her. It