"Why, Will," cried Dick, "it is quite an island. Oh, Taff, look at the
birds!"
"We don't call a rock like that an island," said Will quietly, as the
boys watched a cloud of gulls that had been disturbed by their approach,
and new screaming and uttering peevish querulous cries above their
heads. The top of the rock, which was sixty or seventy feet above the
water, was quite white with guano, and every ledge of the perpendicular
mass seemed to be the home of the sea-birds which had been perched there
in rows, looking almost like pigeons till the near approach of the boat
had sent them off.
"How long would it take to row round?" said Arthur, who, in the novelty
of the scene, forgot all about the conger.
"Two minutes if you could go close in," said Josh; "ten minutes, because
you have to dodge in and out among the rocks which lie out all round."
"And from the Mew Rock to the shore yonder," added Will.
"Yes," said Josh; "it's all rock about here, just a fathom or two under
water, and a bad place for boots."
"Then why did you come in your boat?" cried Arthur excitedly.
"I don't mean little boots in fine weather, sir, I mean big boots in
foul," replied Josh, rowing steadily away. "This here's the place where
we wanted to come, and I'm going to take you to a hole like with rocks
all round it, a hole as goes down seven or eight fathom, and the congers
swarm in the holes all about here, as you'll see."
Arthur's hand tightened on the boat, and his dread made him feel almost
ill; but he struggled with the nervous feeling manfully, though he dared
not trust himself to speak.
And all the while Josh rowed steadily on till he was skirting round the
edge of the perpendicular mass of rock about whose base the waves foamed
and fretted, as if weary with their efforts at trying to wash it down.
The birds squealed and hissed, and now and then one uttered a doleful
wail as it swept here and there, showing its pearly grey breast and the
delicate white feathers beneath its wings.
"Do you ever shoot these birds, Will?" said Dick, lying back so as to
stare up at the gulls as they floated so easily by.
"Shoot them! Oh, no! The fishermen here never harm them; they're such
good friends."
"Why?" said Arthur.
"They show us where the fish are," replied Will. "We can see them with
the glass miles away, flapping about over a shoal of little ones, and
darting down and feeding on them; and where they are feeding, big fish
are sure to be feeding on the shoal as well."
"Then I shouldn't like to be a shoal of little fish," cried Dick. "Why,
as the clown said in the pantomime, `it would be dangerous to be safe.'
I wonder there are any small fish left."
"There are so many of them," said Will laughing; "thousands and millions
of them; so many sometimes in a shoal that they could not be counted,
and--"
"Stand by with the killick, m'lad," cried Josh, as he paddled slowly
now, with his eyes fixed first on one landmark, then on another.
"Ready," said Will, clearing the line, and raising a great stone, to
which the rope was fast, on to the edge of the boat.
"Drop her atop of the little rock as I say when," growled Josh.
"Right," answered back Will.
Josh backed the boat a few yards; and as Dick and his brother gazed over
the stem they were looking down into black water one moment and then
they glided over a pale-green rock flecked with brown waving weeds.
"When!" cried Josh.
_Plash_!
The big stone went over the side on to the rock, which seemed pretty
level, and then as the line ran over the stern Josh began to row once
more, and the boat glided over the sharp edge of the rock and into black
water once more that seemed of tremendous depth.
"Now, forrard, my lad," said Josh; and Will passed him and took his
place right in the bows.
Here a similar process was gone through.
After rowing slowly about thirty yards Josh stopped.
"That ought to do it," he said. "She won't come no further. Over with
it."
Will was standing up now in the bows swinging a grapnel to and fro, and
after letting it sway three or four times he launched it from him, and
it fell with a splash a score of yards away, taking with it another
line, upon which when Dick hauled he found that the grapnel was fast in
a rugged mass of rock like that which they had just left; and with
grapnel and killick at either end of the boat, they were anchored, as
Josh pointed out, right in the middle of the deep hole.
"You can find rocks all round us," he said, "on which you could have
pitched the killick, and they all go straight down like the side of
house or like that there Mew Rock where the birds are."
There was something awe-inspiring in the place, for the boat was in the
shadow of the Mew Rock, behind which lay the sun, hastening to his rest,
his ruddy beams streaming now on either side of what looked like a
rugged black tower standing against a blazing sky, and for the moment
even Dick felt oppressed by the solemnity and beauty of the scene.
Away across the head of the bay lay the fishing village from which they
had come, with its lattice-windows glittering and flashing in the
sunshine, which gilded the luggers that were slowly stealing out to the
fishing-ground miles away. Some of them were urged forward by long oars
so as to get them beyond the shelter of the land, and into the range of
the soft breeze that was rippling the bay far out, though where the
fishing party lay the heaving sea, save where it broke upon the rocks,
was as smooth as glass.
"Now, young gentlemen," said Josh quietly, "congers is queer customers;
sometimes they'll bite."
Arthur shivered.
"Sometimes they won't. I think to-night we shall ketch some."
"Two lines out, eh, Josh?" said Will.
"Ay, two's enough," replied the fisherman; "let the young gents ketch
'em, and we'll do the gawfing and unhooking. You 'tend Master Dickard
there; I'll 'tend Master Taffarthur, and let's see who'll get first
fish. Starboard's our side, port's yourn."
As he spoke he nodded knowingly to Arthur and took out his knife, seized
a pilchard, cut off its head, and split the fish partly up towards the
tail and extracted the backbone, so that it was in two flaps. Then
taking the large hook, he passed it in at the tail, drew the pilchard
carefully up the shank, and then held up the hook for Arthur to see,
with the broad flaps hanging down on either side of the curve and barbed
point.
"There," he said, "Mr Conger Eel, Esquire, won't notice that there's a
hook in that nice tasty bit of pilchar'. He'll take it for his supper,
and to-morrow he'll make conger pie. Now, are you ready?"
"Yes," cried Arthur, making an effort to master his dread.
"Right, then," cried Josh; "lift the lead there over the side, and I'll
drop in the bait, and we shall have no tangle."
Arthur lifted a heavy piece of lead of the shape of a long egg cut down
through its long diameter and attached by wire rings to the line, and
lowered it over the side, Josh dropping in the silvery bait of pilchard
at the same moment, and as the lead sank the bait seemed to dart down as
if alive, disappearing in the dark clear water as the line ran rapidly
over the side.
"Let your line run, lad; there's good seven fathom o' water just here.
That's the way," said Josh. "Now she's at the bottom."
_Plash, plash_! came from the other side of the boat, and Dick shouted,
"Hooray, Taff! here goes for first fish."
"Never you mind him," said Josh to Arthur. "Now, then, hold hard; haul
up a fathom o' line--that's the way: now your bait's just by the bottom,
and you'll know when you've got a bite."
Arthur obeyed, and sat in the boat holding the line with both hands as
rigid as a wax image, and gazing hopelessly at the rough fisherman,
whose one short arm seemed horribly clever and deft, but he fancied it
would be awkward if he had to deal with a large eel.
"Hadn't you better get the chopper ready?" said Arthur hoarsely.
"Oh, that's all ready," said Josh laughing; "but you ain't had a touch
yet."
"N-no--I'm not sure," said Arthur; "something seemed heavy at the end of
the line."
"Four pound o' lead, my lad, is heavy," said Josh, smiling. "You'll
know when you get a conger."
"Hadn't--hadn't we better fish for something else, as the congers don't
bite?"
"How do you know as they don't bite?" said Josh good-humouredly.
"They--they don't seem to," said Arthur. "Perhaps the bait's off. Had
we better see?"
"Oh, no; that bait isn't off," said Josh quietly. "You bide a bit, my
lad. Congers don't care about light when they're feeding. You'll see
when the sun's well down."
"But I'd rather fish for mackerel, I think," said Arthur as he gazed
down into the dark water, and seemed to see twining monsters coming up
to pluck him out of the boat.
"Couldn't ketch mack'rel here, my lad. This is a conger hole. Reg'lar
home for 'em among these rocks. Will and me found 'em out: nobody else
comes and fishes here. We found this hole."
"Ahoy! here's a game. Oh, don't he pull! Oh, my hands!" cried Dick.
"Let me take him," said Will.
"No, no, I'll catch him!" cried Dick excitedly. "I've got such a big
one, Taff; he's trying to pull my arms out of the sockets!"
Tug--pull--jerk--drag--the line was running here and there; and if Dick
had not twisted it round his hands it would have been drawn through
them. As it was, it cut into them, but he held on like a hero.
"Let the line go!" Will kept saying--"let the line go!" but Dick did
not seem to understand. If he did, he was not disposed to let it run,
and, as he thought, lose the fish; and so he dragged and hauled hand
over hand, with Arthur shivering and ready, but for sheer shame, to get
right away in the bows, as the struggle went on.
"Here he is!" cried Dick at last. "Oh, what a monster! and how he
pulls!"
Arthur did not turn his head, and so he saw nothing of what followed,
for he felt sick with dread; but there was a scuffling and a splashing,
then a beating and flapping in the boat.
"Keep him clear of the line, Will, lad!" said Josh.
"Right!" was the laconic reply; and then there were two or three heavy
dull blows, as if some one were striking something soft. And now Arthur
turned round to see that Will had the great head of an eel between his
knees, out of which he cleverly twisted the hook, and held the slowly
writhing creature up at arm's-length.
"Oh, what a monster!" cried Dick.
"Only a little one," said Will, laughing. "It is not above fifteen or
sixteen pounds."
"Why, how big do they grow, then?" cried Dick, as the eel was thrown
into the locker and the lid shut down.
"I've seen them ninety pounds!" said Will. "Josh, there, saw one a
hundred. Didn't you, Josh?"
"Hundred and three pounds and an half!" said Josh. "We shall have some
sport to-night!"