Part 32 (1/2)

”But--”

”Get out! Don't say but. There, we won't go out far, only to the mouth there by the buoy, and we can catch plenty of fish without any trouble at all.”

I gave way--I couldn't help it, and we two went on, so that when Bigley came with the baskets and lines we were waiting for them, and his scruples were nearly overcome.

”Think it will matter if we take the boat?” he said dubiously, for he evidently shared our longing to go.

I said no, I did not think it would, for we could clean it out after we had done fis.h.i.+ng, and we had been boating so often with other people that I for one felt quite equal to the management of the little vessel.

But all the time there was a curious sensation of wrong-doing worrying me, and I wished that I had not been so ready to agree. It was as if I felt the impression of trouble that was coming; but I kept the feeling to myself.

”Well,” said Bigley, ”I did mean to ask for leave.”

”Of course you did,” cried Bob Chowne; ”but as your father is off you can't. Come along, boys, and let's get a good haul this time.”

He seized the bait-basket and made the sh.e.l.ls of the mussels rattle as he trotted down towards where the little five-pointed anchor or grapnel lay on the beach, and began to haul in the boat.

As the light buoyant vessel came gliding over the smooth surface, and grated and b.u.mped against and over the stones, the thoughts of whether we were doing right or wrong grew faint, and then, as the bait-basket was thrown in, and the lines followed, they were forgotten.

”In with you, lads!” cried Bob, making a spring, and leaping from a dry stone right into the boat; but his feet slipped, and he came down sitting in the basket of mussels with an unpleasant crash.

”Now, look here!” he cried in a pa.s.sion, ”if you fellows laugh at me I won't go.”

Of course this made us all the more disposed; but we turned our backs and went down upon our knees to begin seeing to the hooks upon one of the reeled-up lines.

”There, you are laughing both of you!” cried Bob, who was easing the pain he felt, or thought he was, by lifting up and setting down first one leg and then the other.

”That we are not!” I cried, and certainly our faces were serious enough, as we hurriedly popped the lines over the bows, when I jumped in, and, catching up the little grapnel, Bigley took one big stride with his long legs, and was on the gunwale, which went down nearly to the water with his weight; but as the boat rose again, the impetus of the thrust he gave her in leaping aboard carried her out a couple of lengths.

There was no thought now of any wrong-doing, as Bob and I seized an oar apiece and began to paddle as the boat rose and fell and glided over the swelling tide.

”Pull away, Sep!” cried Bob. ”Here, old Big, you're sitting all on one side and making the boat lop. Get in the middle or I'll splash you!”

Bigley moved good-humouredly, and the boat danced beneath his weight.

”Heave ho! Steady!” shouted Bob. ”Don't sink us, lad. I say, what a weight you are! Let's put him ash.o.r.e, Sep. He's too big a Big for a boat like this.”

”Make good ballast,” said Bigley, laughing good-humouredly. ”Boats are always safer when they are well ballasted.”

”I daresay they are, but I like 'em best without Big lumps in 'em. I say, how far out shall we go?”

”Oh, about a quarter of a mile, straight out, over the Ringlet rocks.

You pull, I'll watch the bearings, and drop out the grapnel. Pull hard!”

We rowed away steadily, while, to save time, Bigley took out his pocket-knife and, taking a board from the bait-basket, laid it upon the seat, and began to open the mussels and sc.r.a.pe out the contents of the sh.e.l.ls ready for placing them upon the hooks when we reached the fis.h.i.+ng ground.

For I may tell you that knowing the bottom well has a great deal to do with success in sea-fis.h.i.+ng. A stranger to our parts might think that all he had to do was to row out in a little boat a few hundred yards, and begin to fish.

If he did that, the chances are that he would not catch anything, while a boat three or four lengths away might be hauling in fish quite fast.