stern of the _Industry_ as the
things came floating by, and they saw him turn over on his side and eat
one or two of the things. He took them into his mouth slowly, as though
he had plenty of time; or it seemed as if he ate them slowly. Really, he
didn't. They lost sight of him, for he stayed at that place until every
scrap was gone.

Little Jacob smiled. "He doesn't have to race through his breakfast," he
said, "does he, Sol? Did you see that his underneath parts were white? I
wonder why that is. I s'pose it's because anything that looks down looks
into darkness, and anything that looks up looks into lightness. Is that
why, Mr. Steele?"

"So that the fish wouldn't see him coming?" asked Mr. Steele. "Well,
Jacob, to tell you the truth, I never thought much about it. And I don't
really know how a shark would look from underneath, in the water. The
pearl divers in India could tell you. But I guess that comes as near to
the reason as any other--near enough, anyway. I've no doubt that his
coloring makes him very hard to see, in the water."

"I would like to see the pearl divers," said little Jacob, "but I s'pose
I can't. And I'm rather glad the shark is gone."

"Huh!" said little Sol. "He isn't gone. He only stopped a minute. He'll
be back. Won't he, Mr. Steele?"

Mr. Steele smiled. "There he comes, now."

[Illustration]

And the boys looked and they saw the three-cornered fin cutting through
the water at a great rate. The shark caught up with the ship easily and
took his old place, just astern.

The shark stayed with the _Industry_ all of that day, and little Jacob
watched him once in a while. He thought the shark was kind of horrible
and he wished that he would go away. But he didn't, that day or that
night, or the next. And Captain Solomon didn't like it, either.

So, when Captain Solomon saw him on the third morning, he spoke to the
mate.

"Better get rid of that fellow, Mr. Steele," he said. "Got a shark
hook?"

"Yes, sir," answered the mate. "But I'm afraid it isn't big enough for
him."

But Captain Solomon told him to try it, anyway. And he called some of
the sailors and told them to rig a tackle on the end of the mainyard.
That was so that it would be easy to haul the shark in, when they hooked
him. And he went down and got the shark hook. It was a great, enormous
fishhook and it had about a yard of chain hitched to it, because if it
was rope that went in the shark's mouth, he might bite it off. And