Part 38 (1/2)

Here was a new and truly appalling peril Strange that up till then this form of it had hardly occurred to him Infested as the tropical seas are with these horrible creatures, yet frohted In all the excite shi+p, in the hour of effort and of action, his wholethemselves afloat, and once afloat, of the ithal to sustain life as long as possible Now the imminence of this hideous peril was forcibly thrust upon him He momentarily expected to feel the sudden crunch of one of these voracious ” hi fin It was _ the space between This conveyed but small comfort He had known sharks swi at a respectful distance, ever appearing to bein the contrary direction; yet somehow there they were ever about the sa to leave them: no such luck Besides, where there was one there were ain, and rest a little,” he said, wishi+ng to spare her the alarm, the consternation, of his terrible discovery

She reached out a hand to him with a murmur of welcorowing very weak, and he wanted to rest and think And as he did so, his eyes fell upon another glistening fin, see to appear on the very spot where he had seen the first Great Heaven! there were two of therave, hier to peril, ca hastly horror, why, then he had never heard of it The raft, subht afford a sufficient depth of water for the sharks, growing bold, to snatch them from it, or possibly to capsize it On the other hand, were he to resuht be seized at any moment, and certainly would be sooner or later

Suddenly he becah their precarious support had bumped, had touched a sunken reef; yet not, for there was aliving Quickly, but carefully he looked forth, just in ti, hideous, ill-defined shape changing froreen, as it turned over with serpentine writhe and sank out of sight in the opal depths

Mona saw it too, and a low cry of horror escaped her She started up, shi+vering with fear, her eyes wild and dilated The hatch listed dangerously on its balance Then in a tone of unutterable terror which curdled her listener's blood, she cried,

”Look! look! It is coain!”

It was Eer of the sea was bent upon risly snout, the cruel eye, the white belly, the long glutinous tail, every detail of the sea-deh the water with an unswerving velocity, which should throw it right upon the hatch But, with lightning swiftness, it sank, and, as it passed underneath, again that shock was felt, this time with increased violence Then, as they looked forth, behold several of those gliding, glistening, triangular fins, cleaving without effort in their stealthy, creeping way through the mirror-like surface Here, indeed, with only a few square feet of sub between them and destruction in the most hideous and horrible of for monsters closed in nearer and nearer

And now as the very lowest depths of despair seemed reached, hope dawned once more, faintly enkindled, but still, hope Lon upon the far horizon hung a dark vaporous cloud It greaxing larger and larger

The smoke of a steamshi+p

Both had seen it, both with their heads on a level with the surface of the sea Then ca shock, followed iers of the deep, noing bold in their i that their prey would soon be snatched fro to capsize the cranky support

”We are saved! But--will they see us? Will they see us?” gasped Mona, in agony, straining her eyes upon the now rapidly advancing object The latter became plainer and plainer every moment, and resolved itself into the e stea could not fail to bring her very near

But the heads of two people do not constitute a very prominent object of attention on the surface of the wide sea, even at a short distance The vessel drew nearer and nearer, till she was almost abeam But not nearly so close as they had at first expected

By now they were in the midst of a perfect shoal of the ravenousabove the surface; dull, tulint of a ravening eye; the gap of a frightfulrows of pointed teeth The sea boiled and babbled with the rush of the hideous beasts

Scarcely awith it the shock of their onslaught And the shi+p was passing--passing

Then both these castaways, lifting up their voices, sent up a long, loud ringing shout But what avail was that in the great iines, even the chatter of the passengers on board the passing vessel, would be enough to drown it

But the cry on Mona's part ended in a wild, quavering shriek of terror

There was a shock greater than any that had hitherto occurred, and aThe hatch rocked terribly, tree shark had risen, and turning over had seized a portion of Mona's robe which trailed out beyond the edge, at the sa splinters out of the hard wood; and it was the lash of his tail as he discovered the eain into the depths, which had coht Mona scream and nearly lose her mind with horror, as she realised ould have happened but for her being secured to the ring-bolt Nature would bear no

Her cohly as she did;one alternative With the rapidity of mind which was characteristic of him, that alternative had already presented itself, and it was a ghastly one

This was it _One of they two ether_