Part 44 (1/2)

It was very beautiful and wonderfully attractive On board the shi+p there were hard work, hard living, peremptory orders, and what seemed to the proud boy a state of slavery, while on shore offered itself a life of ease where there would be no battling with storm, and risk of war or shi+pwreck

Why should he not take advantage of this or some other opportunity, and steal ashore?

It would be desertion, and setting aside the punish forced into His Majesty's navy, there was a feeling troubling Don that it would be dishonourable to go

On the other side there was ho desire to be free, and a love of adventure pro him to escape

”No,” he said decidedly at last; ”it would be cowardly and base to desert They treat h to make me run away

I'll stop and bear it like ato this deter the explorers would be before they returned, and also wishi+ng he could have been of the party, he leaned his elbows on the side of the boat and gazed down into the clear water, and through it at the beautiful lace-like patternthe netted shadow of the ripples on the soft pebbly sand

Now and then a shoal of fish glided in and dashed away Then one brilliantly decked in gold and silver and blue ca the while that he had a line

He was leaning over the side in this way, gazing down at the water, now about four feet deep where the boat had swung, when he beca pale and shadowy so direction made the ocean water seem so dense that he could not make out what it was for some little time At first it seemed to be a diular and rounded, and it struck hi in with the tide, till he made out that it was continued backward froined; and as he looked the object gradually grew plainer and rey, and had a peculiar, strange attraction, which htmare-like sensation came over him, and as he realised that the object was alive, and that he was looking down at two strange dull eyes, he felt that he could not shrink back, although the creeping chilly feeling which caer

Then it all appeared et away, and all the ti at that creature whose eyes were fixed upon hiht

The intensity of the position grewtime He tried to call to Jem, as asleep not six feet away, but his mouth felt dry He endeavoured to reach out and kick him, but he could not stir, and still the creature advanced till, all at once, there was a tre seemed to rise and strike him a violent blow in the chest, and the next moment he was seated in the botto stupidly at Je back

”What yer do that for?” cried Jerily ”I'd only just closed ,” faltered Don, shi+vering

”Yes, you did!” cried Jem ”Asked me to sit up and watch, and I'd ha'

done it Needn't ha' played tricks”

”I--I--”

”There, don't say you didn't, Mas' Don Boat's rocking now, and you'd better swab up that water Nice row there'd be if the skipper come back and found the boat all wet”

Jean to re so he noticed Don's face

”Why, hullo, Mas' Don! What's the matter? You look as white as--Why, what now?”

Je the shen Don sprang astern and dragged hi

Jeer, and shrank aith a shudder

”What? A shark!” he exclaimed

”Yes; it rose at me out of the water, and struck h!” ejaculated Jeunwale

”Don't touch, it,” whispered Don; ”itout of the water at you”