If it has got a heart at all, I'll engage to send my spear right
through the core of it; if it hasn't got a heart, I'll send it through
the spot where its heart ought to be."
"Fire away then, my boy," replied Jack with a laugh.
Peterkin immediately took the spear, poised it for a second or two
above his head, then darted it like an arrow into the sea. Down it went
straight into the centre of the green object, passed quite through it,
and came up immediately afterwards, pure and unsullied, while the
mysterious tail moved quietly as before!
"Now," said Peterkin gravely, "that brute is a heartless monster; I'll
have nothing more to do with it."
"I'm pretty sure now," said Jack, "that it is merely a phosphoric
light; but I must say, I'm puzzled at its staying always in that exact
spot."
I also was much puzzled, and inclined to think with Jack that it must
be phosphoric light, of which luminous appearance we had seen much
while on our voyage to these seas. "But," said I, "there is nothing to
hinder us from diving down to it, now that we are sure it is not a
shark."
"True," returned Jack, stripping off his clothes; "I'll go down, Ralph,
as I'm better at diving than you are.--Now then, Peterkin, out o' the
road!" Jack stepped forward, joined his hands above his head, bent over
the rocks, and plunged into the sea. For a second or two the spray
caused by his dive hid him from view; then the water became still, and
we saw him swimming far down in the midst of the green object.
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