. It seemed to him as though some external
influence had penetrated his body, and forced him to move. Again, as
once before, he recalled the last words of his father, so well
remembered:

--"If in that other world to which I am going the disembodied  can
assist man, then be sure, oh my son, I will assist you, and in the
crisis of your fate I will be near, if it is only to communicate to your
 what you ought to do--"

It was Ralph Brandon who had said this. Here in this object which lay
before him, if it were indeed the ship, he imagined the  of
another Ralph Brandon present, awaiting him.

Suddenly a dark wordnetfear passed over his head, which forced him
involuntarily to look up. In  of his  a wordnetfear passed
through him. Far overhead, at the surface of the sea the boat was
floating. But half-way up were three dark objects moving slowly and
lazily along. They were sharks.

To him, in his  and , nothing ever seemed so menacing
as these three demons of the deep as he stared up at them. Had they seen
him? that was now his thought. He clutched his knife in a firmer hold,
feeling all the while how utterly helpless he