"Just the very thing of all others it's most convenient to be just now," answered jolly Jos, laughing. "It really isn't hotter than it has been often before, only there are fewer hands to divide it amongst, eh? Just do your turn in, Hig, and forget your troubles in sleep." "I shall be stewed if I do," moaned Higson. "I've a great mind to have a swim." "It will be the last you'll ever take, old fellow, depend on that," said Green. "Look there!" He pointed to the black fin of a huge shark, which the next instant, turning up its white belly, opened its huge mouth to swallow the contents of the cook's slush bucket. "See, Jack has had his soup, and will be ready for the next course, which you proposed offering him." "Thank you, Jos; I've changed my mind," said Higson. "But I should not object to catch the fellow, and take a slice out of him instead." A stout hook, with a bit of chain to the end of a strong line, and baited with a piece of pork, was quickly got ready. Even the most apathetic of the seamen were aroused with the hopes of capturing their hated foe. A couple of running bowlines were prepared. Higson dropped the tempting morsel, and let it sink down deep, then rapidly drew it up again. Quick as lightning the shark darted at it, and down his throat it went, his jaws closing with a snap which made Higson draw up his leg. The monster's sharp teeth, however, could not bite through the chain. "Haul away, lads!" cried the old mate. While Ben Snatchblock slipped a running bowline over the creature's head, its tail coming to the surface, he dexterously got another round it, and, in spite of its violent struggles, it was hoisted on board. "Stand clear of him, lads," shouted Higson, though the men did not need the warning. The crew seizing axes, capstan-bars, and boarding pikes, attacked the captive monster, as it lay writhing on deck, lashing out furiously with its tail, and every now and then opening its huge jaws, as if even then it had hopes of catching one of its assailants. It showed what it could do by biting off the head of a boarding-pike, which Ben thrust into its mouth. With wild shouts the men sprang round it, rushing in, every now and then, to give it a blow with an axe or capstan-bar, and leaping back again to avoid its tail; for even though its head was nearly smashed in, that continued striking out, and lashing the deck as furiously as at first, till Higson came down on it with a well-aimed blow of his axe, which instantly paralysed it, and it lay motionless. "We'll make sure, lads, he don't come to life again," exclaimed Ben, as he set to work to chop off the tail.