see the surprise written on the faces of his chums.

So, after all, the excitement died out, though they would never forget
their amazement at seeing the boat rushing off without any visible
reason for its flight.

Jack went back and secured the finny prizes that he had taken, upon
which Josh set Jimmy to work, as the Irish boy was a master hand at
cleaning fish. George, it turned out, had knocked down a whole covey
of small birds, and several of them got busy plucking the feathers from
these.

Nick was willing to do what he could, but truth to tell, he proved so
clumsy at the task that it took him the whole time to get just one
little bird ready, while Jack and Herb did six apiece.

Of course, they feasted that night, and considerable of the talk around
the camp-fire concerned the late adventure.

"It might have been much more serious," George declared.

"That's a fact," added Josh, wagging his long head, solemnly, as was
his custom. "Suppose now that same thing had happened in the middle of
the night? Whew! we never would have known what had become of the
blessed old _Wireless_. Jimmy here would have said the ghosts had
carried her off."

"Even if that shark had had a better start he might have given us a
long chase before we caught him. And you fellows saw how quick it got
dark tonight, with the clouds hanging over us," George continued.

"What would you have done in that case, Jack?" asked Nick.

"Do you mean if we found ourselves far out on the dark sound?" laughed
the one addressed. "Why, I reckon we could have heard you shout; and
if that failed there was the fire. Oh, I don't doubt we'd have found
some way to get back here, all in good time!"

By ten o'clock the sky had cleared again, so that they concluded to
keep to the original plan, which included a night ashore. George was
seen to pay particular attention about fastening his boat to the others
with an extra cable.

"He's meaning to make things secure," chuckled Josh.

"Yes, one experience is quite enough for George, sometimes," commented
Herb. "If another shark gets the fever, and tries to run away with an
anchor, he's just got to take the entire bunch."

"Yes, and the whole island in the bargain, because they've fastened the
boats to that tree, you notice," Josh observed.

Their hopes of a good, quiet night suffered no blight, for nothing
happened to disturb their sleep, and morning found them eager to go on.

They fully expecte