, who was shivering with excitement.

"Oh, yes! you can, my lad," said Josh coolly. "I'll show you. Now,
hold tight."

Arthur clung to the line with both hands in desperation; and it seemed
to him that the great fish at the end of it was trying to draw his
shoulders out of their sockets.

"It's too hard. It cuts my hands. It's horrible!"

"Let him go, then," said Josh laughing; "there's plenty of line. Let it
run through your hands."

"It burns them," cried Arthur desperately. "Ah!" he exclaimed with a
sigh of delight, "it's gone!"

"Haul in the line, then!" said Josh grimly, while Will, who knew what it
meant, touched Dick on the shoulder so that he should watch.

Arthur began to haul in the slack line for a few feet, and then he
shouted again:

"Here's another one bigger than the last!" he cried. "I cannot hold
it."

"Let it go, then," said Josh; and Arthur once more slackened the line,
which ran fast for a yard, and then fell loose.

"He's gone now!" said Arthur, hauling in the line; and then in a tone of
voice so despairing that his brother burst into a hearty laugh: "Here's
another at it now!"

"I say, what a place this is, Taff!" cried Dick. "Here, let me help
you!"

"No, no," cried Josh; "you let him ketch the conger himself. Slacken,
my lad."

As if moved by a spring, or disciplined to obey the slightest word of
command, Arthur slackened the line.

"Now, then, haul again," cried Josh; and the boy pulled in the line
eagerly, as if moved by the idea that the sooner he got the hook out of
the water the less likelihood would there be of its being seized by one
or other of the monsters that inhabited the rocky hole.

"He has got it again!" cried Arthur in tones of anguish; "he'll pull me
in!"

"Oh, no, he won't; you're a-going to pull him out, if he don't mind his
eye," said Josh sturdily. "You've got some brains, young gentleman, and
he arn't."

"But there must be a swarm there after my bait," pleaded Arthur.

"Not there," cried Josh. "There's one got it."

"But I've had three or four on, and they've gone again."

"Oh, no! you haven't," said Josh; "conger eels often do like that. You
pull hard; he pulls hard and tries to get to the bottom. You slack the
line, and as there's nobody pulling up, he comes to see what's the
matter. Now, slacken!"

Arthur let the line run.

"Now haul again."

The boy drew in the line, and gained nearly twice as much as he had let
out before t