, a bubble, a mote, a beautiful flash and sparkle of life. You
have seen wonderful glorious creatures--animals, anything, a leopard,
a horse-restless, eager, too much alive ever to be still, silken of
muscle, each slightest movement a benediction of grace, every action
wild, untrammeled, and over all spilling out that intense vitality, that
sheen and luster of living light. The boy had it. Life poured out of him
almost in an effulgence. His skin glowed with it. It burned in his eyes.
I swear I could almost hear it crackle from him. Looking at him, it was
as if a whiff of ozone came to one's nostrils--so fresh and young was
he, so resplendent with health, so wildly wild.

"This was the boy. And it was he who gave the alarm in the midst of the
sport. The boys made a dash of it for the gangway platform, swimming the
fastest strokes they knew, pellmell, floundering and splashing, fright
in their faces, clambering out with jumps and surges, any way to get
out, lending one another a hand to safety, till all were strung along
the gangway and peering down into the water.

"'What is the matter?' asked Miss Caruthers.

"'A shark, I fancy,' Captain Bentley answered. 'Lucky little beggars
that he didn't get one of them.'

"'Are they afraid of sharks?' she asked.

"'Aren't you?' he asked back."

She shuddered, looked overside at the water, and made a move.

"'Not for the world would I venture where a shark might be,' she said,
and shuddered again. 'They are horrible! Horrible!'

"The boys came up on the promenade deck, clustering close to the rail
and worshiping Miss Caruthers who had flung them such a wealth of
backsheesh. The performance being over, Captain Bentley motioned to them
to clear out. But she stopped him.

"'One moment, please, Captain. I have always understood that the natives
are not afraid of sharks.'

"She beckoned the boy of the swan dive nearer to her, and signed to
him to dive over again. He shook his head, and along with all his crew
behind him laughed as if it were a good joke.

"'Shark,' he volunteered, pointing to the water.

"'No,' she said. 'There is no shark.'

"But he nodded his head positively, and the boys behind him nodded with
equal positiveness.

"'No, no, no,' she cried. And then to us, 'Who'll lend me a half-crown
and a sovereign!'

"Immediately the half dozen of us were presenting her with crowns and
sovereigns, and she accepted the two coins from young Ardmore.

"She held up t