The other three men suspended their efforts as the first man replied—
“Why, I thought I heard somebody singin’ out, somewheres. Ay, I was right,” he continued, as a faint “Hillo!” came pealing softly across the darkling surface of the water.
“Hillo!” answered Leslie, sending a stentorian shout ahead through his hollow hands.
“Boat ahoy!” came the answering shout.
“Give way briskly, men,” cried Leslie; “the sound seems to be coming from straight ahead. We shall get a sight of something now in a few minutes.”
The men resumed their pulling with a will, encouraged by the fact that the shouts kept up by the unseen man were rapidly becoming clearer, more audible, and evidently nearer. Suddenly a dark mass loomed up ahead and another cry told them that they were close aboard the wreckage.
“Oars!” commanded Leslie. The men ceased pulling, and the individual upon the wreckage shouted—
“Boat ahoy! you’ll have to pull right round this raffle, and come up on t’other side afore you’ll be able to take me off. You can’t get alongside of me from where you are; there’s too much yard-arm and splintered spar stickin’ out in that direction. And I daren’t jump overboard and swim to you, for I’ve been blockaded all day by sharks—see, there’s one of them now, close alongside of ye!”
And looking over the side, the crew of the boat beheld, revealed as a shape of fire in the highly phosphorescent sea, a monster of fully twenty feet in length or more, swimming rapidly along, a few feet below the surface; while, some half-a-dozen yards away, a second suddenly revealed his presence.
“All right,” answered Leslie, “stay where you are; we will pull round to the other side.”