Part 51 (1/2)

Arthur clung to the line with both hands in desperation; and it seemed to him that the great fish at the end of it was trying to draw his shoulders out of their sockets.

”It's too hard. It cuts my hands. It's horrible!”

”Let him go, then,” said Josh laughing; ”there's plenty of line. Let it run through your hands.”

”It burns them,” cried Arthur desperately. ”Ah!” he exclaimed with a sigh of delight, ”it's gone!”

”Haul in the line, then!” said Josh grimly, while Will, who knew what it meant, touched d.i.c.k on the shoulder so that he should watch.

Arthur began to haul in the slack line for a few feet, and then he shouted again:

”Here's another one bigger than the last!” he cried. ”I cannot hold it.”

”Let it go, then,” said Josh; and Arthur once more slackened the line, which ran fast for a yard, and then fell loose.

”He's gone now!” said Arthur, hauling in the line; and then in a tone of voice so despairing that his brother burst into a hearty laugh: ”Here's another at it now!”

”I say, what a place this is, Taff!” cried d.i.c.k. ”Here, let me help you!”

”No, no,” cried Josh; ”you let him ketch the conger himself. Slacken, my lad.”

As if moved by a spring, or disciplined to obey the slightest word of command, Arthur slackened the line.

”Now, then, haul again,” cried Josh; and the boy pulled in the line eagerly, as if moved by the idea that the sooner he got the hook out of the water the less likelihood would there be of its being seized by one or other of the monsters that inhabited the rocky hole.

”He has got it again!” cried Arthur in tones of anguish; ”he'll pull me in!”

”Oh, no, he won't; you're a-going to pull him out, if he don't mind his eye,” said Josh st.u.r.dily. ”You've got some brains, young gentleman, and he arn't.”

”But there must be a swarm there after my bait,” pleaded Arthur.

”Not there,” cried Josh. ”There's one got it.”

”But I've had three or four on, and they've gone again.”

”Oh, no! you haven't,” said Josh; ”conger eels often do like that. You pull hard; he pulls hard and tries to get to the bottom. You slack the line, and as there's n.o.body pulling up, he comes to see what's the matter. Now, slacken!”

Arthur let the line run.

”Now haul again.”

The boy drew in the line, and gained nearly twice as much as he had let out before there was a tremendous drag again, and as Arthur held on with both hands his arms quivered.

”Ease him a little--now pull--ease again--now pull!” cried Josh, over and over, till, giving and taking like this, Arthur had drawn the heavy lead nearly to the surface of the water, and for a moment he thought the dark little object going here and there was the eel; but directly after he saw a great wavy blue-black line some feet down, and that all at once turned to one that was creamy white, then dark, then light again, as the conger writhed over and over.

”I've got one too!” cried d.i.c.k; and his attention, like that of Will, was taken from what went on upon the starboard side of the boat, leaving Arthur to the care of Josh.

”Jos.h.!.+--please,” faltered Arthur, as he clung to the line in an agony of dread, too much alarmed now even to let go. ”Josh--pray--pray cut the line!”

”No, no, no! you don't mean that,” whispered back Josh encouragingly.