THE QUEST OF THE SILVER SWAN A Land and Sea Tale for Boys

Excerpt: The sun whose upper edge had just appeared above the horizon cast its first red beams aslant a deserted wilderness of heaving billows. Here and there a flying fish spurning its usual element cut the air like a swift ray of light falling back into the sea again after its short flight with a splash that sent myriad drops flashing in the sunlight. There were not a few triangular objects dark in color and looking like tiny sails darting along the surface of the sea first in this direction and then in that. There was a peculiar sinister motion to these fleshy sails an appearance to make the beholder shudder involuntarily; for these objects were the dorsal fins of sharks and there is nothing more bloodthirsty and cruel than these “tigers of the sea.� It was quite noticeable that these monsters had gathered about an object which in comparison with the vast expanse of sea and sky was but a speck. It labored heavily upon the surface of the sea and seemed to possess a great attraction for the sharks.