He quickly returned, and baited the hook with about ten pounds of beef, that had gone a little queer in the bottom of the tub.
"Now, Mr. Sharkey, let us see if you can digest that," exclaimed Jack, as he dropped the hook overboard.
The shark looked at it closely, and then looked up at Jack, as though he would much prefer the fisher to the bait.
"It is no use, Jack," said Harry; "he is not hungry."
"Strikes me it is unskilfulness in angling, rather than want of appetite on the shark's part," remarked Mr. Mole.
"Would you like to have a try, sir?"
"Hem! well, I don't mind showing you how to do it," responded the professor.
Jack began to haul in the line, coiling it down just at Mole's feet, or rather where his feet should have been.
But sharkey, finding himself in danger of losing his dinner, made a dart at the meat before it left the water, then discovering that the barb of the hook had stuck in his mouth, she darted off at a great rate, but sad to relate, the rope as it flew out over the bulwark, got twisted round one of Mr. Mole's stumps, and the worthy professor flew into the ocean For a wooden-legged man to swim well, or even to keep himself afloat by treading water, is a somewhat difficult task and so Mr. Mole would have found it, had not Harry Girdwood promptly followed the advice given by a celebrated American—
"When you see a drowning man, throw a rail at him."