HOMEWARD BOUND. 131

search of prey, to swallow a fat piece of salt pork, with
which a hook had been baited.

“If they catch that fellow it will put an end to this
calm,” Mr. Bean said, as he saluted the young commander.

«Any one could see that you didn’t come aboard
through the cabin windows,” Ben replied, laughingly,
“for nowhere, except in the forecastle, can a man be
educated in the belief that a gale must avenge a shark’s
death.”

“Whether I got it forward or aft, I believe it just the
same,” the first officer replied, decidedly. “I have seen
that saying verified too many times to doubt it.”

« Well, I hope at least a portion of it will come true in
this case, for, besides needing a wind, there’d be a chance
to learn how much faith can be put in it. They have
hooked their ‘fish, I see.”

It was as Ben said. The shark had allowed himself to
become fastened to the steel, and was now thrashing
around at a lively rate trying to regain his liberty, while
the sailors, not daring to pull him out by the head, were
making every effort to get a slip-noose around his body,
by which he might be hoisted on board.

After fifteen or twenty minutes of reasonably hard
work, their labours were rewarded, and soon the huge fish
was hanging by the tail, while the men proceeded to
wreak their vengeance on the man-eater for the possible
injury he had inflicted upon others of their calling.

With all at work, it was not long before the shark was
dead, and when as many slices were cut from his body as