"I agree to that," said the other; and, the matter being thus settled, it was arranged that they should proceed the following day on their expedition, if the weather were favourable and nothing occurred to alter their plans. Nellie was specially granted permission to accompany the party, much against the wish of her mother, who declared that she would spoil all her things to a certainty; saying besides, that, from what she had gathered of the conversation, she did not believe trawling was a very ladylike pursuit, "for little girls, at all events."

However, all the same, Miss Nellie was up betimes the next morning, and sallied out with Bob and his father, whose pet she was, just as the early milkman was coming his rounds; the trio getting down to the beach punctually at seven o'clock, the hour fixed by the Captain for their start.

Here they found the old sailor and d.i.c.k, ready and waiting for them; when, going off in the little dinghy belonging to the _Zephyr_, although the boat had to make a couple of pa.s.sages to and fro, being only capable of accommodating two pa.s.sengers besides proud d.i.c.k the sculler, they were soon all on board.

The cutter, then, having her jib and mainsail already set, had only to slip her moorings, and was off and away, bowling out seaward before the breeze, which was blowing from the land.

The morning was bright and balmy; and the sun having risen some hours earlier even than the very early risers of the party, its beams by this time warmed the heavens and lit up the landscape, the rose-tints of dawn being succeeded by a golden glow all over the sky, the sea dancing in sympathy and sparkling in the sunlight--being altogether too merry to look blue.

It did not take the little craft long, running before the wind with a slack sheet, to reach the Horse Shingle shoal, beyond the outlying fort, and near the Warner light-ship, where lay the fishing-ground, or "bank,"

which the Captain had described as being especially favourable for their sport.

"Now," said the old sailor, "the time for action has at last arrived.

We must get ready to 'shoot' the trawl."

"You are not going to fire?" cried Nell in alarm, hearing him use the technical term he had employed. "I'm so afraid of guns."

"No, my dear," he answered chuckling, "I meant pitching the trawl over the side, just in the same way as you say 'shooting' coals or rubbish.

Are you ready at your end, Strong?"

"Yes, I'm all right," replied the barrister, who had been ably helping the Captain in arranging the meshes of the net along the starboard- gunwale, out of the way of the swing of the boom, and getting the trawl- beam across the stern-sheets of the cutter; while Bob and d.i.c.k attended to the sheets and tiller. "Fire away, Captain Dresser!"

"Well, then, let us heave over," sang out the Captain, in his quarter-- deck voice, as he called it. "One--two--three--off she goes!"

So, with a dull plunge, the trawl was "shot," the old sailor and Mr Strong quickly pitching over the side, after it, the bunchy folds of the net; when the guy-rope fastened to the bridle of the beam was secured to the bowsprit-bitts and then again to a thole-pin aft, so as to prevent its getting under the keel.

The boat was then allowed to fill her jib and drift out with the ebbing tide, keeping a straight course for the Nab, and steering herself by means of the dragging net astern; neither the services of Bob nor of d.i.c.k being required any further at the helm under the circ.u.mstances.

"You can light your pipe now, if you like," said Captain Dresser to Mr Strong, when this was satisfactorily accomplished. "We shall have nothing to do for the next hour or two; for we must have the net down long enough to let something have a chance of getting into the pocket of it."

"I suppose the smell of tobacco won't frighten the fish?" observed the barrister, gladly taking advantage of the permission and striking a vesuvian, his pipe being already loaded and ready. "Fresh-water anglers are rather particular on the point."

"Bless you, no!" replied the old sailor laughing, "our fish at sea know what's good for them and like it!"

Miss Nell, who seemed anxious about something, presently hazarded a question when her father had lit his pipe and was smoking comfortably on the forecastle.

"Are we not going to have any breakfast?" said she, in a very grave way, as befitted a matter of such deep importance. "I feel very hungry."

"Dear me, I was almost forgetting breakfast!" cried the Captain, throwing away the end of the cigar the barrister had offered him, which he was smoking rather against the grain, preferring his tobacco in the form of snuff. "d.i.c.k, did you bring the things all right as I told you?"

"Yes, sir," replied d.i.c.k. "They be in the fo'c's'le, sir."

"Is the coffee on the stove?"

"Yes, sir, and biling."

"That's right," said the Captain, who continued, turning to Nellie, "Now, missy, you can preside over our breakfast-table if you like.

You'll find all the traps ready in the little cabin for'ard under the half-deck."

Thereupon, Miss Nellie, with much dignity, busied herself in pouring out the coffee, which had been kept hot all the while on "such a dear little stove," as she called out to Bob the moment she caught sight of it in the fore-cabin; the pair const.i.tuting themselves steward and stewardess instanter, and serving out, with d.i.c.k's help, their rations to the rest of the company.

They were in the midst of breakfast, the trawl having been dragging along the bottom of the sea for not quite an hour, when, all at once, the rope holding it attached to the bowsprit-bitts began to jerk violently.

"Hallo!" cried the Captain, starting up from his seat on one of the bunks in the little cabin, which, even with stooping, he and Mr Strong found it a hard matter to squeeze themselves into. "We've caught something big this time!"

"Do you think it's a whale?" said Nell, jumping up also, abandoning in her hurry her post as mistress of the ceremonies. "It must be awfully big to make that great rope shake so!"

The old sailor chuckled till his sides shook.

"You seem wonderfully fond of whales, missy!" he exclaimed, turning round as soon as he had managed to wriggle himself out of the fo'c's'le and was able to stand erect again. "Don't you remember, you mistook those grampuses we came across the other day when going to Seaview for whales?"

"Yes; and I remember, too, Captain, your making fun of me then, the same as now," replied Nell, smiling as she went on. "I don't mind it though, for I like being here with you and dad!"

"That's right, my dear," replied the old sailor. "There's nothing like keeping your temper. But, we must now see about hauling in the trawl; for the chap who has got into the net is a big fellow, whoever he is, and, if we don't pull him in pretty sharp, he'll knock our net to pieces!"

So saying, the Captain brought the end of the tackle to the little windla.s.s placed amidships; when he and Mr Dugald Strong, who did not find the task, by the way, as easy as he imagined, began reeling in the trawl rope fathom by fathom, until, anon, the end of the beam was seen peering above the water alongside.

The jerking of the tackle, which had continued all the time they were hauling in, appeared to increase as the trawl was raised to the surface, the net now that it was within view swaying from side to side; and, when Captain Dresser and the barrister leant over the gunwale to lift in the beam with its pocket attached, there was a hoa.r.s.e barking sound heard proceeding from the folds of the net, like that of a dog in the distance.

"Oh!" cried Nellie, in alarm, climbing up on the thwarts and getting as far away as she could--"what is it?"

"What is it?" echoed Bob in the same breath. "What is it?"

The Captain, however, did not immediately satisfy their curiosity.

"I've got my suspicions," he commenced in a leisurely way as he bent a little more over the side to get a better hold of the net; but, what he saw, as the trawl lifted out of the sea, made him quicken his speech, and he exclaimed in a much louder tone-- "Take care, missy, and look out, you boys! There's a shark in the trawl-net, and a pretty venomous beast, too!"

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

THE SPOILS OF THE SEA.

"A shark!" yelled out Mister Bob, evincing much greater fright than his sister Nell, although he was very fond of referring to her contemptuously as "being only a girl," when manly exploits happened to be the topic of conversation and she chanced to hazard an opinion; and, at the same instant, he jumped madly from the gunwale of the little cutter on to the top of her half-deck forwards, climbing from thence into the lee rigging, where he evidently thought he would be safer. "A shark! Won't it bite?"

"Aye, by Jove, it will!" said the Captain ironically. "I'd swarm up to the masthead, if I were you, so as to be out of harm's way. You needn't mind your sister or any of us down here. We can take care of ourselves!"

This made Bob a bit ashamed, and he began to climb down again from the rigging, looking gingerly the while over the side, as if expecting every minute that the terrible monster of the deep which his imagination had pictured would spring up and seize him.

"I--I--was afraid," he faltered. "I--I--thought it best to get out of the way."

"So it seems," said the old sailor grimly. "It's lucky, though, that every one was not of the same mind; or where would we all be! d.i.c.k, where's that hatchet I gave you this morning to put into the boat?"

"It's in the after locker, sir."

"Look smart, then," cried the Captain excitedly. "Bear a hand and get it at once."

At this order, d.i.c.k, who, like Bob, had thought "discretion the better part of valour," and got behind the windla.s.s, in order to have some substantial obstacle between himself and the trawl-net which the Captain, with Mr Dugald Strong's aid, had partly dragged into the well of the cutter, now crawled out from his retreat; and keeping over well to leeward on the other side of the boom, proceeded to the locker in the stern-sheets, from whence he took out a small axe and handed it to Captain Dresser.