Though the tide was rising again, the
heavy sea was gone. The current still created some spume and noise as
it swept past the reef, but its anger had vanished with the gale.
Beyond the fringe of broken water a slight swell only served to mirror
in countless facets the tender light of a perfect sunset. The eastern
horizon was a broad line of silver. Nearer, the shadow of the island
created bands of purest green and ultramarine.
They reached the place from which the Brazilians had thrown the rope.
They could hear the quiet plash of the water in the cleft. Piled
against a low-lying rock were the funnel and other debris of the
_Andromeda_. The black hull was plainly visible beneath the surface.
Even while they were looking at the wreck a huge fish curled his ten
feet of length with stealthy grace from out some dim recess; it might
be, perhaps, from out the crushed shell of the chart-room.
Hozier glanced at his companion. He half expected her to shrink back
appalled at this sinister sight; it was her destiny to surprise him not
once but many times during that amazing period.
"Is that a shark?" she asked quietly.
"Yes. . . . You stipulated for candor, you know."
"I had no notion that such a monster could move with so great elegance.
I think I would rather be eaten by a shark than lie at the bottom of
the sea like our poor vessel there.
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