The shark is the swiftest fish that swims.  The speed of the fastest steamer afloat is poor compared to his.  And he is a great gad-about, and roams far and wide in the oceans, and visits the shores of all of them, ultimately, in the course of his restless excursions.  I have a tale to tell now, which has not as yet been in print.  In 1870 a young stranger arrived in Sydney, and set about finding something to do; but he knew no one, and brought no recommendations, and the result was that he got no employment.  He had aimed high, at first, but as time and his money wasted away he grew less and less exacting, until at last he was willing to serve in the humblest capacities if so he might get bread and shelter.  But luck was still against him; he could find no opening of any sort.  Finally his money was all gone.  He walked the streets all day, thinking; he walked them all night, thinking, thinking, and growing hungrier and hungrier.  At dawn he found himself well away from the town and drifting aimlessly along the harbor shore.  As he was passing by a nodding shark-fisher the man looked up and said——­

“Say, young fellow, take my line a spell, and change my luck for me.”

“How do you know I won’t make it worse?”

“Because you can’t.  It has been at its worst all night.  If you can’t change it, no harm’s done; if you do change it, it’s for the better, of course.  Come.”

“All right, what will you give?”

“I’ll give you the shark, if you catch one.”

“And I will eat it, bones and all.  Give me the line.”

“Here you are.  I will get away, now, for awhile, so that my luck won’t spoil yours; for many and many a time I’ve noticed that if——­there, pull in, pull in, man, you’ve got a bite!  I knew how it would be.  Why, I knew you for a born son of luck the minute I saw you.  All right—­he’s landed.”

It was an unusually large shark—­“a full nineteen-footer,” the fisherman said, as he laid the creature open with his knife.

“Now you rob him, young man, while I step to my hamper for a fresh bait.  There’s generally something in them worth going for.  You’ve changed my luck, you see.  But my goodness, I hope you haven’t changed your own.”

“Oh, it wouldn’t matter; don’t worry about that.  Get your bait.  I’ll rob him.”

When the fisherman got back the young man had just finished washing his hands in the bay, and was starting away.

“What, you are not going?”

“Yes.  Good-bye.”

“But what about your shark?”

“The shark?  Why, what use is he to me?”

“What use is he?  I like that.  Don’t you know that we can go and report him to Government, and you’ll get a clean solid eighty shillings bounty?  Hard cash, you know.  What do you think about it now?”

“Oh, well, you can collect it.”

“And keep it?  Is that what you mean?”

“Yes.”