s
tremendously hot, of course, but the yacht's motion created a perpetual
breeze, while her awnings kept the bridge and lower decks cool.

They were far out of the course of steamers, and saw no craft of any
kind, save fleets of "Portuguese men-o'-war," as Joe Swanson and the
others called the jellyfish squadrons. Indeed, there was no lack of sea
life all about them. Mart ate fried flying-fish for the first time in
his life, and one day the Kanakas on watch set up a yell of "Shark! Him
shark!"

All hands rushed out on deck for the fun. Getting in the extreme stern,
Mart and Bob thrilled at sight of the dorsal fin cutting the water
twenty feet astern, while the shark could plainly be seen gobbling the
refuse which the cook had just flung out from the galley. His long,
dirty-white body was anything but pleasant, and when he turned over to
catch a morsel and his V-shaped mouth became evident, Mart felt a
repulsion that was little short of fear.

The whole crew came aft in high glee, while "Liverpool" Peters, the
second officer, bore an immense hook made fast to a line. Having baited
the hook with a lump of pork, he flung it over the rail; the boys craned
forward eagerly, and an instant later they saw the floating pork vanish
in the maw of the shark.

"Pull!" yelled Peters, and the men made fast to the line. Then ensued an
hour of the wildest excitement, for the shark fought gamely, but he
could not bite through the big steel shank of the hook, and was finally
drawn alongside. Peters finished him with a revolver bullet, and the
Kanakas dined on roast shark that night.

More than once after that they caught sharks, as well as several of the
pilot fish which were continually leaping beneath the bows of the yacht,
while the boys managed to get good sport with smaller fish. Best of all,
however, was the shooting at porpoises.

Every morning Captain Hollinger would fetch his rifles up to the chart
house, and the boys would join him. There, sitting in their deck chairs
beneath the awnings, they would load up the rifles and sit watching.

Suddenly, leaping out of the sea abruptly, perhaps half a mile off and
perhaps fifty feet away, something would break the water. Up would shoot
the great dark body, the whole fish darting clear in the air to fall
back with hardly a splash, in a graceful curve. When he first saw the
sight, Mart could hardly contain himself; the thrill of seeing that
great body swirl up into the air in plai