"Oh, oh, oh!" shrieked little Cassia-bud. In his agony he ran round and round the beacon, then threw himself on the dog, frantically weeping.
"Oh, golly, golly!" he sobbed. "Poor massa, for true, dey will all be drown. De big shark will gobble massa up plenty quick. Oh, I not can look no mo'! I not can look no mo'!"
Not heeding the boy's lamentations Magilvray sat there as if rooted to the spot. He saw the boat still afloat there, bottom upwards, with Fred and Frank clinging to its keel, after many ineffectual attempts to right it. He saw big Quambo swim after an oar, and picking it up come with it to the bows, and tie it with the others to the painter; and he could not help admiring the giant negro's wondrous coolness in what appeared to be the hour of death.
Then a long, very long time seemed to elapse without any change of scene or situation.
Was the boat drifting nearer to the island shore he wondered, or being carried further out to sea? At all events the poor fellows that clung to her keel must soon sink exhausted beneath the sea, or—and the thought made this sailor's blood run cold—they would be hauled under water, one by one, by the sharks, and torn in pieces.
Lower and lower sank the sun. It was already beginning to shimmer red across the sea.
But what was that moving slowly towards the upset boat and the clinging men? He brought the glass to bear on the spot.
Horror! it was the dark triangular fin of a huge blue shark, and it was moving in the direction of the boat—nearer and nearer. Not always in a direct line though, and often remaining for a time immoveable, as if picking up the scent.
Magilvray felt as if under the spell of some fearful nightmare. Then he sprang to his feet and closed the telescope with a snap.
"I shall go mad, mad," he cried, "if I gaze but a minute longer. Come, Kashie, come."