This word, the first the young man had uttered since the start, restored the strength of his comrades and aroused their ardour again. The fortress stood out gloomy and imposing a short distance ahead, and the conspirators were already swimming in the shadow it cast. All at once a cry disturbed the silence. "_Tintorera!_" A brilliant mass came to meet the conspirators, leave a long phosphorescent trail behind it. "Tintorera!" a second voice shouted. In fact, another shark was advancing from the open sea and swimming straight towards the conspirators, leaving a line of fire. "Tintorera!" a third voice said, with an indescribable accent of agony. Three tintoreras beset the swimmers and momentarily contracted the circle in which they held them. The danger was serious. "Forward, comrades," the Jaguar said, in his calm and sympathetic voice, "swim gently and noiselessly; you know that these monsters are almost blind, and more than half deaf, they have not seen us. John Davis?" he added. "Here!" the American answered. "Where are you?" "I am the last but one on the right." "Good! you will take the second tintorera and I the first. Lanzi!" "Lanzi has just disappeared," a voice answered. "Malediction!" said the Jaguar, "Can he be dead? who shall attack the third tintorera?" "Do not trouble yourself, Jaguar," the well-known voice of the half-breed answered, "I am after it." "Good! swim on, comrades, and leave us to cope with these monsters." The conspirators continued to advance silently, although they redoubled their efforts. The Jaguar dived immediately and dashed toward the shark, which was swimming at a moderate depth. The Chief and the monster were soon so near that the brown fins of the tintorera grazed the shoulder of the daring Texan, who saw the glassy eye of the shark, half covered by a membrane, fixed upon him with an expression of cold malignity. The Jaguar remounted to the surface of the water and clutched his dagger, at the same instant the monster's silvery belly was visible, as it opened its enormous mouth, armed with terrible teeth, close set as those of a harrow. The Jaguar drove in his dagger with all his strength, and ripped the belly for about one-third its length. The hideous tintorera, wounded to death, gave an enormous bound, while wildly beating the water, and then fell back stark dead. The Jaguar, half blinded by the blood-stained water, and tossed about in the whirlpool it had caused in its flurry, did not regain his senses for more than a minute. At length, by a supreme effort, he returned to the surface, inhaled the fresh air, and stifled a cry of triumph on seeing near him the inanimate body of his foe the sport of the waves. Without stopping, he took an anxious glance around. "It's all over," a voice said near him. "Is that you, Lanzi?" "It is," the half-bred answered, in a voice as tranquil as if he were on terra firma. "Well?" "The shark is dead."