Part 42 (1/2)
”What is it, Colin?”
”It just occurred to me, sir,” the boy answered, ”that perhaps soht be found”
”It ht--but I have as yet found none”
”Or perhaps,” Colin again suggested, ”soht be put into the water so that the oyster shell ht be poisonous to the drill, but not for food, because we eat the oyster and not the shell”
The director laughed
”That suggestion is new, at least,” he said, ”but I don't think it would work because this is a es continuously Thereeverything, and so to stick at it till I do, that is, when I'gestions, and when you can help me in any way I'll let you know”
”Thank you ever so lad to do anything I can”
The boy had a fertile brain, and, before a week had passed by, a line of experiested itself to him in connection with the oyster-drill problem and he explained it to the director
”To work that out properly would take several years!” the latter said tentatively
”I thought it would,” said Colin, ”but perhaps soht to be done, anyway”
”You have the right idea,” the director replied; ”it's the problem, not the man who solves it Now,” he continued, ”I have a surprise for you
Dr Ji on swordfish for soe speci out with a swordfish sloop next week I can probably arrange for the trap to be looked after, if you are off for a day or two Do you want to go?”
”Indeed I do,” said Colin ”Mr Wadreds was telling ”
”I suppose he told you the faed a vessel and drove its sword through 'copper sheathing, an inch board under-sheathing, a three-inch plank of hard wood, the solid white oak tih another two and a half-inch hard-oak ceiling, and lastly penetrated the head of an oil cask, where it stuck, not a drop of the oil having escaped?'”
[Illustration: WHAT SHALL WE GET THIS TIME?
_Courtesy of the U S Bureau of Fisheries_]
[Illustration: HERE'S A NEW ONE, BOYS!
The veteran collector of the Woods Hole Station is seen in the foreground of both pictures
_Courtesy of the U S Bureau of Fisheries_]
”Yes, Mr Prelatt,” Colin answered, ”and if he hadn't told me that the record was authentic and that the sword and section of tiht have doubted it”
”They're enormously powerful, one of the best boatmen I ever kneas killed by a swordfish,” said the director
”Hoas that, sir?”
”He had harpooned the swordfish and had gone out in the se fish dived under the craft and shot up froh the ti the boatman with such force that he was killed almost instantly Boats used often to be sunk by the rushes of a swordfish, but nowadays the greater part of the work is done directly froes, however, can take all the excitement out of a swordfish capture”
”Will they attack a boat unprovoked?”