rds of Snowball
admonished him to "make way to de right."

The sailor had too much respect for the experience of the ex-cook to
disregard the injunctions thus given; and of hearing them, he at once
swerved in the direction indicated, and "made way to de right" as fast
as a man could swim with only one hand free for the stroke.

Fortunately for all parties, the one arm proved sufficient. The new
direction entered upon by the swimmer soon changed the relative position
of all parties. The triangle became resolved into a right line,--the
shark at one extremity,--the sailor with his charge at the other,--
Snowball midway between!

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

FACE TO FACE.

By this change in the position of the parties, the zygaena had lost its
advantage. Instead of having for the object of its attack an exhausted
swimmer encumbered with a weight, without a weapon, or even an arm free
to wield one, it would now have for its antagonist a strong man,--fresh
and vigorous,--armed with a long-bladed knife; one, moreover, who from
earliest youth had lived a half-amphibious life, and who was almost as
much at home in the water as the shark itself. At all events, the
Coromantee could calculate on keeping himself _above_ water for several
hours without rest, and _under_ it as long as any other animal whose
natural element was the earth or the air.

Snowball, however, had no intention to go _wider_,--not an inch deeper
than he could possibly help: for therein would lie his danger, and he
knew it. As we have already said, it was not the first time for him to
encounter a shark in its own element; and though, perhaps, not so
familial with the _hammer-head_ as with the white shark, he was not
altogether unacquainted with the habits and peculiarities of the former
species.

He knew that the zygaena, like others of its congeners, in seizing an
object, requires to have that object _under_ it; otherwise, it is
compelled to turn upon its back or side, just in proportion as the prey
it would seize lies high or low in the water. If altogether on the
surface, the shark is forced to make a complete roll, belly upward; and
this necessity,--arising from the peculiar position of the animal's
mouth, and the conformation of its jaws,--is well-known among mariners,
and better among true shark-fighters, who use it to their advantage.
Among the pearl-divers of the Vermilion Sea (Gulf of California), the
attack of the common shark is but little