ssed safely astern, breathing hard, eyes on the dwindling
leviathan, wallowing westward.

Jim spoke first: "Close as they make 'em! I'm glad that's over!"

Percy agreed with all his heart. Jim had discovered that the tub was
becoming a bit shaky, so he reinforced the lanyard, and strengthened the
bottom by binding it with ground-line. Before long it was towing again
in front of the bow, as good as new.

Hours passed, but the intensity of the gale did not slacken. The sea was
frightfully rough. It kept the boys bailing continually.

Dawn broke at last. On the eastern horizon grew a pale light, against
which the ragged, savagely leaping crests were silhouetted weirdly. It
brightened to a crimson glow, and soon the sun was shooting its fiery
arrows across the heaving, glittering waste.

The forenoon wore slowly on as they drifted steadily south. The water
around the dory was alive with whirlpools. Gigantic green seas rushed
down as if to overwhelm her, but she flirted her bow aloft and rode them
stanchly.

Percy, glancing to starboard, saw a black fin cutting the slope of a
watery ridge.

"Shark, Jim?"

"Yes. And there's another to port. They're looking for trouble. They'll
stick by till we're out of this scrape or in a worse one."

He was right. The sun reached its zenith and began to descend, but still
the black fins wove their ceaseless circles round the boat.

Jim had been scanning the sea, hand over his eyes.

"There's a schooner," he remarked, without enthusiasm.

Percy was all excitement.

"Where? Where?"

"Up there, two miles to windward. Double reefed and clawing west. She'd
never see us in a thousand years, and if she did she couldn't do us any
good. Forget her!"

The schooner inched her way imperceptibly under the horizon. The boys
had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours; excitement had prevented them
from feeling hungry. Now they came to a realization that they had
stomachs, and they finished half the hard bread remaining in the bag.

"We'll save the rest," decided Jim. "May need it worse later than we do
now."

Percy could easily have eaten twice his share, but he recognized the
wisdom of Jim's decision. Both were very thirsty, but without a drop of
fresh water aboard there was nothing to do but wait.

At four o'clock came disaster. The drug suddenly let go!

Round whirled the dory, side to the seas. Jim grabbed the oar and jammed
it into the scull-hole, but before he could wet the blad