They tossed coin after coin into the transparent waters and swiftly as each piece sank, the young swimmer was swifter. Every one was caught before it reached bottom, and came up clutched in some dusky hand or shining between ivory teeth. "I'll be bankrupt if this keeps up long," laughed Joe. "Yes," said Jim. "You'll wish you'd joined the All-Star League and copped that twenty thousand." "How do they ever do it?" marveled Clara. "In the blood I suppose," replied Joe. "Their folks throw them into the water when they're babies, and like puppies, they have to swim or drown." "They're more at home in the water than they are on land," remarked Jim. "Those fellows will swim out in the ocean and stay there all day long." "I should think they'd be afraid of sharks," remarked Mabel, with a shudder, as she thought of the recent incident in which that hideous brute had figured. "Sharks are easy meat for them," replied Jim. "You ought to pity the sharks instead of wasting it on these fellows. Give them a knife, and the shark hasn't a Chinaman's chance." "Not even a knife," chimed in Joe. "A stick sharpened at both ends is enough." "A stick?" exclaimed Mabel, wonderingly. "Sure thing," replied Joe. "They simply wait until the shark turns over to grab them and then thrust it right into the open jaws. You've no idea how effective that can be." "It's a case of misplaced confidence," laughed Jim. "The poor trustful shark lets his jaws come together with a snap, or rather he thinks he does, and instead of a nice juicy human, those guileless jaws of his close on the two ends of the pointed stick and stay there. He can't close his mouth and he drowns." "Poor thing," murmured Clara involuntarily, while the boys put up a shout. "I don't care," she added, flushing. "I'm always sorry for the underdog----" "That's why she's taken such a fancy to you, Jim, old man," laughed Joe. "Well, as long as pity is akin to----" began Joe, when Mabel, tired with laughing, interrupted him: "But suppose the stick should break," she said. "Then there would be just one less native," answered Jim, solemnly. "By the way, Joe," he added, "speaking of sharks--what's the difference between a dog and a shark?" "Give it up," replied Joe promptly. "Because," chuckled Jim, "a dog's bark is worse than his bite, but a shark's bite is--is--worse than his--er----" "Go ahead," said Joe bitterly, while the girls giggled. "Perpetrate it. What shark has a bark?" "A dog-faced shark," crowed Jim triumphantly. "Of all the idiots," lisped Reggie, joining them at the rail. "'Pon honor, you know, I never heard such bally nonsense." The gibe that followed this remark was cut short by the approach of the lighter on which the passengers were to be carried to the shore. They were to spend two days in Hawaii while the steamer discharged its cargo, but they would have gladly made it two weeks or two months.