ocks they would be torn to pieces, and the fisherman ruined.

And this saves the herring--that fish lies hours and hours at the very
bottom of the sea like a stone, and the poor fisherman shall drive
with his nets a yard or two over a square mile of fish, and not catch a
herring tail; on the other hand, if they rise to play for five minutes,
in that five minutes they shall fill seven hundred boats.

At nine o'clock all the boats had shot their nets, and Christie went
alongside his lordship's cutter; he asked her many questions about
herring fishery, to which she gave clear answers, derived from her
father, who had always been what the fishermen call a lucky fisherman;
that is, he had opened his eyes and judged for himself.

Lord Ipsden then gave her blue lights to distribute among the boats,
that the first which caught herring might signal all hands.

This was done, and all was expectation. Eleven o'clock came--no signal
from any boat.

Christie became anxious. At last she went round to the boats; found the
boys all asleep except the baddish boy; waked them up, and made them all
haul in their first net. The nets came in as black as ink, no sign of a
herring.

There was but one opinion; there was no herring at Inch Keith; they had
not been there this seven years.

At last, Flucker, to whom she came in turn, told her he was going into
two fathom water, where he would let out the bladders and drop the nets
on their cursed backs.

A strong remonstrance was made by Christie, but the baddish boy insisted
that he had an equal right in all her nets, and, setting his sail, he
ran into shoal water.

Christie began to be sorrowful; instead of making money, she was going
to throw it away, and the ne'er-do-weel Flucker would tear six nets from
the ropes.

Flucker hauled down his sail, and unstepped his mast in two fathom
water; but he was not such a fool as to risk his six nets; he devoted
one to his experiment, and did it well; he let out his bladder line a
fathom, so that one half his net would literally be higgledy-piggledy
with the rocks, unless the fish were there _en masse._

No long time was required.

In five minutes he began to haul in the net; first, the boys hauled in
the rope, and then the net began to approach the surface. Flucker looked
anxiously down, the other lads incredulously; suddenly they all gave a
yell of triumph--an appearance of silver and lightning mixed had glanced
up from the bottom; in cam