but without effect.

"Let's try another kind," said the mate, and the line being drawn in, an
artificial sand-eel was fastened by the stout twisted wire hook to the
swivel on the line.

"I'll wait and see what luck you have, Jack, before I change mine," said
the doctor.

"I don't think I shall have any," replied the lad.

"The fish may be stupid and ignorant, but I don't think they will be so
stupid as to try and bite at the absurd thing I have on now."

"There's no accounting for what fish will do," said the mate, smiling.
"That's right; let it go. I've caught mackerel often enough on the
Cornish coast with a hook at the end of a piece of gut run through a
broken scrap of clay tobacco-pipe."

"Yes, mackerel are splendid fellows to bite. I've caught them myself
with a soft white goose feather tied on to a hook, and thrown as if it
were a fly, and--"

"Oh!" cried Jack, with a cry of excitement, "I've got one," and Edward
half rose in his excitement from his seat.

For as he let the line run gently through his fingers from where it lay
in rings at the bottom of the boat, it was suddenly snatched away and
began to run rapidly.

"Stop it! Catch hold quickly," cried the mate; and Jack seized the line
again and held on.

"I've got it!" he cried, as he felt thrill after thrill run up his arms
in the fish's struggles to escape.

"Haul him in, Jack," said the doctor. "Bravo! first one to you. We
shall begin to take some now."

"It won't come," cried Jack, as he held on by the line, with the fish
evidently diving down into deep water in its frantic efforts to escape.

"Pull, lad!"

"But it's a monster, and the line cuts my hand. No, no, not you," he
cried to his man.

"Let me try," said the mate.

"No, no, I mean to catch it myself," said Jack excitedly. "Ah, don't
touch it."

"Only to see what it's like," said the mate, reaching over so as to take
hold of the line.

"Not a very large one," he said, "two or three pounds perhaps. There, I
think you can haul that in; I'll lift it into the boat with the gaff."

"Oh, don't touch it with that," cried Jack quickly; "it's all snaky, and
we shall want to eat the fish."

"I'll give it a good wash in the water," said the mate, smiling.

"No; let me lift it in when I get it to the side," said Jack excitedly.
"Yes, it's coming now."

"But if you try to lift it in, the hook will drag out of the fish's
jaws," said the mate.

"Yes; let him lift it in, Jac