The Rudder Grangers Abroad | Page 6

and then he would give
the line a little pull, as if to see if there really was a connection between
it and the fish. Then he would stand a little longer, and meditate a little
more, still looking alternately at the line and the fish. Having made up
his mind, at last, that the two things must be separated, he kneeled
down upon his flopping prize and proceeded meditatively to extract the
hook. The teacher was struggling at her line. Hand over hand she pulled
it in. As it came nearer and nearer, her fish swam wildly from side to
side, making the tightened line fairly hiss as it swept through the water.
But still she pulled and pulled, until, red and breathless, she landed her
prize upon the sand.
"Hurrah!" shouted the Paying Teller. "That's the biggest blue-fish yet!"
But he did not come to take the fish from the hook. He was
momentarily expecting a bite.
Euphemia was not to be seen. This did not surprise me, as she
frequently gave up fishing long before the others, and went to stroll
upon the sea-beach, a few hundred yards away. She was fond of fishing,
but it soon tired her. "If you want to know what it is like," she wrote to
a friend in the North, "just tie a long string around your boy Charlie,
and try to haul him out of the back yard into the house."
But Euphemia was not upon the sea-beach to-day. I walked a mile or so
along the sand, but did not find her. She had gone around the little bluff
to our shark-line. This was a long rope, like a clothes-line, with a short
chain at the end and a great hook, which was baited with a large piece
of fish. It was thrown out every day, the land end tied to a stout stake
driven into the sand, and the whole business given into the charge of
"the crew," who was to report if a shark should bite. But to-day the
little rascal had wandered away, and Euphemia was managing the line.

"I thought I would try to catch a shark all by myself," she said. "I
wonder if there's one on the hook now. Would you mind feeling the
line?"
I laughed as I took the rope from her hand.
"If you had a shark on the hook, my dear," said I, "you would have no
doubt upon the subject."
"It would be a splendid thing to catch the first one," she said, "and there
must be lots of them in here, for we have seen their back fins so often."
I was about to answer this remark when I began to walk out into the
water. I did not at the time know exactly why I did this, but it seemed
as if some one had taken me by the hand and was leading me into the
depths. But the water splashing above my ankles and a scream from
Euphemia made me drop the line, which immediately spun out to its
full length, making the stake creak and move in the sand.
"Goodness gracious!" cried Euphemia, her face pale as the beach. "Isn't
it horrible? We've got one!"
"Horrible!" I cried. "Didn't you want to get one?" and seizing the axe,
which lay near by, I drove the stake deep down into the sand. "Now it
will hold him!" I cried. "He can't pull that out!"
"But how are we to pull him in?" exclaimed Euphemia. "This line is as
tight as a guitar-string."
This was true. I took hold of the rope, but could make no impression on
it. Suddenly it slackened in my hand.
"Hurrah!" I cried, "we may have him yet! But we must play him."
"Play him!" exclaimed Euphemia. "You can never play a huge creature
like that. Let me go and call some of the others to help."
"No, no!" I said. "Perhaps we can do it all by ourselves. Wind the line
quickly around the top of the stake as I pull it in."

Euphemia knelt down and rapidly wound several yards of the slack
cord around the stake. In a few moments it tightened again, jerking
itself out of my hand.
"There, now!" said Euphemia. "He is off again! You can never haul
him in, now."
"Just wait," I said. "When he finds that he cannot break away he rushes
toward shore, trying to bite the line above the chain. Then I must haul it
in and you must wind it up. If you and I and the shark continue to act in
this way, perhaps, after a time, we may get him into shallow water. But
don't scream or shout. I don't want the others to know anything about
it."
Sure