"It's of no use to try," said Bigley, "not till the water's nearly gone.
You can't catch 'em."
"Why, you knew that all along!" I cried.
"To be sure I did; but you wouldn't have believed me if I'd said so.
Let's wait. In half an hour it will be all right, and we can get the
lot."
So we waited impatiently, wading and creeping from stone to stone, and
trying to count the fish in the weir pool; but not very successfully,
for some we counted over and over again, and others were like the little
pig in the herd, they would not stand still to be counted.
All at once it seemed as if a big retiring wave left room for nearly all
the water left to run out, and though another wave came and drove some
back, the next one took it away, leaving room for the weir to drain, and
with a shout of triumph we charged down now at the luckless fish, which
were splashing about in about six inches of water among the sea-weed and
stones.
I forgot all about not meaning to get wet, for I was in over my
boot-tops directly. But what did it matter out there in the warm
sunshine and by the sea!
It was rare sport for us, though it was death to the fishes. But the
weir was contrived to obtain a regular food supply, and we thought of
nothing but catching the prisoners and transferring them to the basket.
Bob was pretty successful with the net, but he only caught the mullet.
The honour of capturing the eleven-pound salmon, for such it proved to
be, was reserved for Bigley and me, as I managed to drive the beautiful
silvery creature right up on to the stones, and there Bigley pounced
upon it, and bore it flapping and beating its tail to the basket.
As we worked, the remainder of the water sank away, leaving only a pool
of an inch or so deep, and from which Bob fished three small mullet, the
total caught being eleven, the largest five pounds, and the salmon
eleven, the same number of pounds as there were mullet.
We bore our capture up to the cottage in triumph, where old Jonas
presented me and Bob with a fine mullet a piece, the salmon and the rest
being despatched at once by Binnacle Bill to Ripplemouth for sale.
It was now getting so near tea-time that we set off for home, it being
understood that Bigley was to come with us as far as my home, where we
were all to have tea, after which he was to set off one way, and I was
to go the other; that is to say, walking part of the way home with Bob.
This I did; but when we set off I could not help feeling how much
pleasanter it would have been to have gone with Bigley, for I did not
anticipate any very pleasant walk. And I was right; for, whether it was
the new bread, or the strength of our milk and water, I don't know--all
I do know is, that Bob was as sour as he could be, and insisted upon my
carrying his mullet, because he said I should have nothing to carry
going home.