"I don't think so, Paul. Mr. Collier told me on the steamer that in the very deepest parts of the ocean there were no fish, only worms and sea-cucumbers and things like that."
"If you'll listen a minute, sah," said the boatman, "yo'll heah somefin' wo'se than eveh come from de bottom ob de sea."
"Worse?"
"Worse!"
The two exclamations rang like one as the two boys strained into attention. They listened intently and then across the water came a whisking rushing sound followed by a deep 'boom' and a distant splash. It was several moments, too,
before the swell from that splash reached the boat; when it did, the craft rocked noticeably.
"What is that?" asked Colin.
"Vampa, sah," answered the boatman, as he took his oars and started to row away in the opposite direction.
"Hold on a bit there," the sponge-buyer said, "I never saw a vampire. What does it look like?"
"Some calls 'em sea-bat or devil-ray," was the reply, "an' the're twenty, thirty feet 'cross sometimes. They looks lak a sting ray. Ah don' wan' to see 'em."