"It was in the water swimming about, making darts here and there like a
big trout. Its body was brown, and it looked as if it had horny balls
round its neck; and its head, you know, was like a human being's."
"I never heard tell of a fish like that, Caius. Was it a porpoise?"
"Well, I suppose I know what a porpoise is like."
"About how large was it?" said the elder man, abandoning the porpoise
theory.
"I should think about five or six feet long."
"As long as that? Did it look as if it could do any harm?"
"No; I should think it was harmless; but, father, I tell you its head
looked like a person's head."
"Was it a shark with a man stuck in its throat?"
"N--n--no." Not liking to deny this ingenious suggestion too promptly,
he feigned to consider it. "It wasn't a dead man's head; it was like a
live woman's head."
"I never heard of sharks coming near shore here, any way," added the old
man. "What distance was it off--half a mile?"
"It came between me and the little island off which we lost baby Day. It
lay half-way between the island and the shore."
The old man was not one to waste words. He did not remark that in that
case Caius must have seen the creature clearly, for it went without
saying.
"Pity you hadn't my gun," he said.
Caius inwardly shuddered, but because he wished to confide as far as he
might, he said outwardly: "I shouldn't have liked to shoot at it; its
face looked so awfully human, you know.
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