There was clearly nothing else for it; so they slipped in, taking the corpse with them, and all got under the ledge--which quite concealed them--and supported the dead body, that it might not float away and betray them. The proceeding was fraught with danger, as sharks swarmed in those waters, and the blood that was oozing from the Spaniard's body would be almost certain to attract those monsters of the sea,--their scent for blood being very keen. The flesh of the fugitives crept, and the knowledge that one of them might be seized kept them in a state of perfectly agonising suspense. They had been in for some time, and the position was becoming unendurable when: "Gomez, Gomez, where are you? Hasten, man; we do not want to wait here all day!" came from the very ledge underneath which they were floating, and holding, meanwhile, the corpse of the man who was then being called by name. "Where can he be, curse him?" growled the same voice. "What has become of the lazy hound? Carrajo, I will flog him when we get on board! Gomez!" There was, of course, no reply. "He may have fallen in and been drowned, or taken by a shark, perchance," suggested another voice. More oaths followed, together with a lengthy dissertation on Gomez's ancestors, both immediate and remote. At this moment Bevan gave vent to a suppressed gasp, and, following his gaze, the others saw the dorsal fins of several sharks which had evidently scented the blood still draining from the body of the slain man, and were now searching for their prey. Then the concealed listeners heard--from someone who had evidently been to the edge of the ledge to search for the missing man-- "I have looked, Captain, and Gomez is nowhere to be found." There were more awful oaths from Jose--for it was indeed that renowned and most notorious scoundrel,--and then he again spoke: "He must have fallen in and been drowned--curses on him for a clumsy fool! Yes; and there are the sharks that have taken his worthless carcass. Come, you; we will return to the schooner. It is useless to search further for him, for he will never come back." Meanwhile the sharks were coming ever closer and closer still, while the footsteps of the pirate and his companions were heard retreating. The minds of the hiding trio _were_ much relieved at the departure of Jose Leirya and his villains, and particularly at Jose's mention of his intention to return to the vessel; but the suspense of waiting for them to retire, while the sharks were edging ever nearer and nearer, was awful. The triangular fins of these terrible monsters were now darting rapidly hither and thither, and at every dart the voracious fish came nearer than before. Momentarily they expected to see one or more of the fins disappear below the surface, and they knew that when that happened they might anticipate seizure by the shark a few seconds later. But as yet the fins remained visible on the surface of the water.