excited by his rapid motion through the sleeping waters of the dark
creek, which lit up his jaws, and head, and whole body; his eyes were
especially luminous, while a long wake of sparkles streamed away astern
of him from the lashing of his tail. As the boats lost their speed,
the luminousness of his appearance faded gradually as he shortened
sail also, until he disappeared altogether. He was then at rest, and
suspended motionless in the water; and the only thing that indicated
his proximity, was an occasional sparkle from the motion of a fin. We
brought the boats nearer together, after pulling a stroke or two, but he
seemed to sink as we closed, until at last we could merely distinguish
an indistinct halo far down in the clear black profound. But as we
separated, and resumed our original position, he again rose near the
surface; and although the ripple and dip of the oars rendered him
invisible while we were pulling, yet the moment we again rested on them,
there was the monster, like a persecuting fiend, once more right between
us, glaring on us, and apparently watching every motion. It was a
terrible spectacle, and rendered still more striking by the melancholy
occurrence of the forenoon. "That's the very identical, damnable
_baste_ himself, as murthered poor little Louis this morning, yeer
honour; I knows him from the torn flesh of him under his larboard
blinker, sir--just where Wiggen's boat hook punished him," quoth the
Irish captain of the mizzen-top.

"A water-kelpie," murmured another of the Captain's gigs, a Scotchman.

The men were evidently alarmed, "Stretch out, men: never mind the shark.
He can't jump into the boat surely," said the skipper. "What the deuce
are you afraid of?"

We arrived within pistol-shot of the ship.