ashing high in the air, now
gleaming under water, going up and down with all the measured regularity
of a trip-hammer.

When it pleased the Coromantee to dismount from his slippery saddle, the
zygaena floated by his side,--a carcass stained with its own blood, that
for fathoms around encrimsoned the azure waters of the ocean!

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

THE CHASE OF THE CATAMARAN.

As we have said, little William, standing near the stern of the
_Catamaran_, had watched the spectacle with suspended breath. It was
only after seeing the zygaena float lifeless on the water, and becoming
satisfied that Snowball had come out of the struggle safe as well as
victorious, that the boy gave utterance to a shout. Then, unable longer
to restrain himself, he raised a cry of joyful exultation.

It was neither prolonged nor repeated. It had scarce passed his lips,
ere it was succeeded by another of very different import. This was the
very opposite to a shout of joy: rather was it a cry of consternation.
That little drama of the ocean, of which he had been the sole spectator,
was not yet over. There was another act to come of equally thrilling
interest with that just ended,--an act in which he himself would be
called upon to play an important part along with the others.

It had already commenced; and the wild cry which escaped from the lips
of the sailor-lad announced his first perception of the new phase into
which the drama had entered.

Absorbed in the contemplation of the combat between Snowball and the
shark, he had hitherto remained unobservant of a circumstance of the
most alarming character,--one that threatened not only the destruction
of the Coromantee, but Ben Brace as well, and Lilly Lalee, and in time
little William himself,--in short, of the whole party.

The lives of all were at that moment in the hands of the sailor-lad, or
if not in his hands, then were all of them doomed to certain
destruction.

You may be wondering what strange circumstance this was, fraught with
such a terrible contingency. There was nothing mysterious in or about
it. It was simply that the _Catamaran_, carrying its large spread sail,
was drifting to leeward, and rapidly increasing the distance between
itself and the swimmers.

Relieved from the anxiety with which he had regarded the conflict,
little William at once became aware of this new danger,--hence his cry
of consternation. Ben Brace either perceived it at the same instant,