South America

CHAPTER I THE SHARK

ON the 26th of July, 1864, a magnificent yacht was steaming
along the North Channel at full speed, with a strong
breeze blowing from the N. E. The Union Jack was flying
at the mizzen-mast, and a blue standard bearing the initials
E. G., embroidered in gold, and surmounted by a ducal coronet,
floated from the topgallant head of the main-mast. The name
of the yacht was the DUNCAN, and the owner was Lord Glenarvan,
one of the sixteen Scotch peers who sit in the Upper House,
and the most distinguished member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club,
so famous throughout the United Kingdom.

Lord Edward Glenarvan was on board with his young wife, Lady Helena,
and one of his cousins, Major McNabbs.

The DUNCAN was newly built, and had been making a trial trip a few
miles outside the Firth of Clyde. She was returning to Glasgow,
and the Isle of Arran already loomed in the distance, when the sailor on
watch caught sight of an enormous fish sporting in the wake of the ship.
Lord Edward, who was immediately apprised of the fact, came up on
the poop a few minutes after with his cousin, and asked John Mangles,
the captain, what sort of an animal he thought it was.

"Well, since your Lordship asks my opinion," said Mangles, "I think
it is a shark, and a fine large one too."

"A shark on these shores!"