"But only small ones."

"Yes, sir, small ones, big as Will there, and big ones, great as me, and
three foot longer. Shouldn't wonder if there was a big one in the net."

"But a large fish such as you speak of would go through the net as if it
were a cobweb."

Will shook his head.

"If the net was tight, sir, and the shark swam right at it, the meshes
would give way; but they don't seem to swim right at them, and the net
goes with the fish like--yields to it--and does not break. It does
sometimes, of course; but we've seen a big fish, a porpoise, regularly
rolled up in a net and tied in so that it couldn't move."

"Like a conger in a trammel," assented Josh. "Fish is very stoopid,
sir, and never thinks of getting out the way they go in."

All this while the seine was being contracted and drawn into the boat,
where it was laid up like some gigantic brown skein, the men who were
gathering it in shaking out the sea-weed and small fish that had
enmeshed themselves and had forced their unfortunate heads in beyond the
gills.

"Here she be," shouted one of the men, as there was a tremendous swirl
in the water close by a boat.

"All right!" said the captain of the seine, "we'll have her bime-by;"
and once more the collecting of the mackerel went on till the tremendous
shoal that had been inclosed had exchanged places, and was pretty well
all in the baskets that were still being rapidly despatched. And all
this time the net had been more and more contracted, the bottom worked
by the ropes, so that it was drawn closer and closer, and at last it was
decided that the next thing to be done was to capture the large fish,
whatever it was, and this they set about, as shall be told.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

UNPLEASANT TIMES FOR A BIG BLUE SHARK.

Long usage had made the principal fishermen who lived by seine-fishing
and trawling as thoroughly acquainted with the bottom of the bay as if
they could see it like a piece of land. Every rock and its position was
in their mind's eye, every patch of sand and bed of stone, so that they
had no difficulty in getting the net in closer and closer towards one
side of the bay, where it formed a broad sandy slope, up which it was
determined to draw the net, gradually opening the ends, or rather one
end, the other being packed deeply down in the seine-boat.

This was done, the small boats being rowed out of the circle of corks,
and one going to the free end of the net, while the others,