"How many did you catch, Maxie?" asked Grace.

"I? Oh, I helped catch the perch for bait; but I didn't try for sharks,
for of course a boy wouldn't be strong enough to haul such big fellows
in. I tell you the men had a hard tug, especially with the blue-dog.

"The sand-sharks they killed when they'd got 'em close up to the gunwale
by pounding them on the nose with a club--a good many hard whacks it
took, too; but the blue-dog had to be stabbed with a lance; and I
should think it took considerable courage and skill to do it, with such
a big, strong, wicked-looking fellow. You just ought to have seen how he
rolled over and over in the water and lashed it into a foam with his
tail, how angry his eyes looked, and how he showed his sharp white
teeth. I thought once he'd be right in among us the next minute, but he
didn't; they got the lance down his throat just in time to put a stop to
that."

"Oh, I'm so glad he didn't!" Grace said, drawing a long breath. "Do they
eat sharks, Maxie?"

"No, indeed; who'd want to eat a fish that maybe had grown fat on human
flesh?"

"What do they kill them for, then?"

"Oh, to rid the seas of them, I suppose, and because there is a valuable
oil in their livers. We saw our fellows towed ashore and cut open and
their livers taken out."