The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island | Page 5

one side, and out of his direct course.
Sharks have other fish to guide them, and without these they are
helpless, which was the case with this one, who, in his sudden change
of course, got away from his pilots, and had to be hunted up by them
before he could get his bearings on the boys in the water.
This created a diversion in Jack's favor, and he swam on sturdily,
splashing and kicking, and making a great disturbance to frighten away
the second shark, which was coming alarmingly close to him.
The yacht was coming on, however, and now they bore down toward
him, slackening speed a bit, one of the sailors throwing the boy a line.

Jack caught it with one hand, as it settled over his head, and said to the
boy on his back:
"Hang on, young fellow, and they'll haul us both up together. You are
no sort of weight, but just hang on."
Jesse W. did as he was told, and both boys were hauled on board the
yacht, Dick, Harry, Arthur, Billy Manners and half a dozen others
pulling in heartily on the line.
They were drawn on board just in time, for the baffled shark made one
terrific jump out of water as they reached the deck, the gangway having
been opened, and banged his nose against the plankshire, falling back
into the sea with a great splash.
Bucephalus was at the gangway, an axe in his hand, and as the shark
gave his jump he aimed a swinging blow at the monster, but failed to
hit him.
"Go back dere, yo' sassy feller," he sputtered. "Ah jus' like to get one
good crack at yo' an' Ah rip yo' side open. Don' yo' perambulate dis yer
way again if yo' know what am salubrious fo' yo', yo'heah?"
Bucephalus was fond of using big words, but did not always use them
in the most appropriate manner, so that the boys were always kept
guessing as to what he was next going to say when excited.
The boys nearest the rail seized Jack and young Smith as they came on
deck, and bore them in triumph to the cabin.
"Bully for Jack Sheldon!" shouted Harry, and fifty boys gave him the
heartiest kind of a cheer.
"That's some nerve he showed," declared Arthur Warren, "but then, he
always did have nerve, Jack did. If he didn't he wouldn't have done the
things he has."
"H'm! anybody could do that," said Herring with a snarl. "The yacht

was close to him all the time. You fellows are all the time cracking up
Jack Sheldon, but I don't see that he is any great shakes."
"No, you wouldn't," said Billy Manners, with an emphasis on the
pronoun, "but decent fellows can see it. Would you have gone over
after young Smith?"
"There wasn't any need to do it," growled Herring. "If I'd seen him first
I'd have done it."
"You saw it as soon as any one except Jack himself, and you were
nearer the deck," said Percival, who came up in time to hear what
Herring had said. "I heard you say that Jack pushed the boy overboard
so as to get the name of rescuing him. You know that this is a lie,
because Jack was on the bridge at that time, and could not have done it.
Jack and I both saw young Jesse W. go overboard. Jack feared he might,
and had started to go to the deck when the thing happened."
Herring did not care to get into a quarrel with Percival, who was much
stronger and better built than himself, and he, therefore, went away
muttering something which the boys could not make out.
"He is always saying something nasty against Jack," declared Arthur.
"He hates Jack because Jack is smarter, and a general favorite. I wish
he had stayed on shore, but as Mr. Smith invited the whole Academy
he could not very well be left behind."
"He ought to be marooned on some solitary, uninhabited island, and
left there to hate himself," chuckled Billy Manners.
"They don't do those things nowadays, Billy," said Percival. "You have
been reading the lives of the pirates, and are full of that sort of romantic
stuff."
"Maybe I am," chuckled Billy good naturedly, "but here come Jack and
young Jesse W., looking as fine as fiddles, and not a bit worse for their
baths. Whoop it up for them, boys!"

Every boy in sight responded to the summons, and gave both boys the
heartiest cheers, both Jack and his young companion being favorites.

CHAPTER III
THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS
Neither Jack nor young Smith felt any the worse for his tumble into the
warm waters of the Caribbean, and after they had changed