Made furious by the taste of so much food they cruised alongside the rickety raft gazing with their little eyes at its occupants till shudders ran through them. The boys tried to scare them away by flourishing the branches used as oars, but this, while it scared them at first, soon lost its effect on the sea-tigers, who seemed determined to keep alongside the raft, evidently hoping that sooner or later they would get a meal.
All the afternoon the boys took turns paddling with their branches and by this means, and impelled also by one of the ocean currents that abound in this latitude, the smoking island gradually drew further and further away. But the sharks still cruised alongside and now and again one bolder than the others would turn partly on his back and nose up against the raft, showing his cruel, saw-like teeth and monstrous mouth as he did so.
"I don't wonder they call them sea-tigers," said Frank, "more terrible looking monsters I never saw."
The tropic night soon closed and darkness shut down with great rapidity. Far off the boys could see the red glare cast by the flaming island.
"That's queer," exclaimed Frank suddenly. He had been regarding the island intensely for some time.
"What's queer?" demanded Billy.
"Why, do you see that long wavering ray of light shooting up near the island," he cried, pointing in that direction, "what can it be?"
The others looked and to their amazement, as soon as Ben's eyes fell on the strange ray of white light, the old sailor began dancing a sort of jig to the imminent danger of his tumbling in among the sharks.
"Hurray! hurray!" he shouted, "douse my topsails and keel-haul my main-jibboom, if that ain't the best sight I've seen for a long time."
"Have you gone crazy?" asked Harry.