Menhardoc Part 45

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, with Uncle Abram's and its load, going to the back of the net, about the middle, so that the visitors might have a good view.

All this took time; but at last the net was so managed that the two seine-boats were ash.o.r.e, their stems run right on the sands, and the net between them formed a bow towards the coast, the ends being about eighty or ninety yards apart.

There was no mistake now about there being some large fish inclosed; and the excitement of the boys grew intense when they saw Josh take hold of the hitcher, and hold it, spear-fashion, ready to attack the great fish should he see a chance.

"Don't strike at her, Josh," shouted Pollard, "unless she be coming over. I think we can manage her easy enough now."

He was quite right, for long custom had made these men wonderfully clever in the management of a net, which, fragile in its single threads, becomes, in its combination of thousands of meshes, an engine of tremendous power.

The way the men managed was as follows:--

After getting, as it were, the two ends of the net to the sh.o.r.e, they drew on the lower rope, bringing it in, and in, over the sand, till the bow it made was less bent. Then they served the upper rope the same.

Then they drew both together, with the result that at last the tremendously extensive net was folded longwise right over upon itself, the top-line was drawn right down upon the foot-line, and at last the fish left in the net were completely shut in what seemed like an enormous old-fashioned purse.

This done, the ends were taken by plenty of willing hands right into shallow water, and as the men hauled, the great purse came closer and closer, and every now and then there was a tremendous agitation towards the middle.

"Let's go ash.o.r.e, now," said Arthur, as Josh urged the boat on, and the water swirled up tremendously not four yards away.

"Is there any danger--any risk?" said Mr Temple quietly to Josh.

"A mussy me! no, sir; not a bit!" said Josh; and then laughing, he added, "only for shark, sir, of having his liver boiled down for oil."

"Oh! don't I wish I had a spear, or a harpoon!" cried d.i.c.k excitedly, as once more the water was churned up and the net came to the surface.

"We'll get her without any o' that tackle, Master d.i.c.k, sir," cried Josh, keeping steadily advancing after the cork-line, but not so quickly as to go over the net.

"Are they going to draw the net right ash.o.r.e, Will?" said d.i.c.k.

"Right ash.o.r.e, Master d.i.c.k, on to the sands, and it won't be long now."

"Take care, d.i.c.k, or you'll be overboard!" said Mr Temple.

"I should like to be, father; it isn't deep here?"

"Fathom!" said Josh shortly; "soon be half."

There was a regular sing-song kept up by the men who were hauling, and the sands presented quite an exciting scene, for some sixty or seventy of the men who had finished their task, with others who were ash.o.r.e and not busy, had collected to see the big fish taken in the seine.

"Why, there must be lots of fish in it yet," said d.i.c.k.

"Yes; plenty of mackerel left, and a many fish perhaps such as you never saw before."

"Is she heavy, lads?" shouted the captain of the seine-boat.

"Ay, there be a sag o' fish in her yet aside the great un," was shouted back.

"Steady, then! steady! and don't break the seine. Take your time!"

"Hadn't we better get ash.o.r.e?" cried d.i.c.k; "we shall see better."

"No!" said Mr Temple; "I think our friend Josh is right. We are out of the way of the men here and dry. Look, boys, look! there is something big in the net indeed!"

For as he was speaking there was a tremendous commotion, the water was splashed up, and for a moment it seemed as if whatever caused the disturbance had escaped.

But it was not so, though the limits of its prison were growing narrower minute by minute as the ends of the net were gathered on to the sand, and laid at the water's edge like a great soft ridge of brown sea-weed.

The curve of the net was now reduced to fifty feet, and soon it was not above forty; and at this stage of the proceedings what with the weight being collected in such narrow limits, and the water being so shallow, the captain became doubtful of its bearing so tremendous a strain as would be caused by its being hauled bodily ash.o.r.e, so about twenty men waded in behind the great bag that it formed, and at the word of command as two parties hauled at either end they stooped down, and gathering up a fair quant.i.ty of the tightened net in their hands, they too helped, and the thirty or forty feet of shallow water was soon covered, the seine being dragged so that the lead or bottom-line was drawn right on to dry land, and the cork-line raised so that there was a fence of net some three feet above the top of the water, and in the long shallow pool, whose bottom was net, there were the fish by the thousand, rushing to and fro, leaping over each other, and showing flashes of silver, gold, blue, and green, in the bright sun as it shone on the animated scene.

"Bring up some more pads!" cried the captain of the seine; "here be five or six hundred more mackerel. Hand me that boat-hook, my lad, and stand aside. Keep off the net there, you boys!"

d.i.c.k realised now the advantage of his position as Josh thrust the boat right up to the net, and he could look down at the crowded fish, some of which began to turn up fast now, killed by the pressure, and the sandy thickness of the water.

But the sight of sights was a long bluish-grey fish that kept slowly forcing itself here and there amongst the silvery crowd, keeping its head well beneath the water, and now and then showing a long, thin, unequally-lobed tail.

"Shark she be, sure enough," said Josh.

"Ay, shark!" said the captain, advancing, boat-hook in hand; "time her mischief was stopped."

"Do they do mischief?" whispered d.i.c.k to Will. "No; never mind now; I can't listen to you!"

The scene was too full of interest, for it was evident that the captain meant to hook hold of the shark, and draw it on to the sands before anything else was done.

But this did not prove a very easy task, for the great fish kept diving under the companions of its adversity, and keeping its head boring down towards the bottom.

If it had been a question of catching it by the tail there would have been no difficulty in getting a chance. In fact, several times over a thin line with a noose might have been thrown over the lobes and the fish drawn out; but the captain had made up his mind to get the boat-hook well in the creature's jaws or gills and drag it ash.o.r.e that fashion, while, when at last he did get a chance he missed, the hook gliding over the shining skin without taking hold.

Twice he missed like this, and it took some time before he could get another chance; but at last it came, and as, full of excitement, the occupants of the boat bent over the side, there was a quick lunge, and a tremendous splashing as the captain ran nimbly up the sands, dragging after him the long bluish fish, which was immediately attacked as it lay on the sands lashing about with its tail, and throwing its head from side to side till the knife-thrusts it received, and the violent blows across the back of the head, disabled it, and its course was at an end.

"I only wonder, sir, as she didn't bite her way out of the net," said the captain of the seine, as Mr Temple and his sons landed to have a look at the take:

"It is a shark, then?" said Mr Temple.

"Ay, sir, she be a blue shark, sure enough. Look at her teeth!

Mischievous brutes; they follow the drift-nets, and bite the herring and pilchard out of 'em. I've known 'em swallow a conger when it's been hooked, and I've seen small ones caught that way, but they generally bite through the line and go off. Look, sir, there's teeth--sharp as lancets."

As he spoke he thrust the end of the boat-hook between the shark's jaws, and wrenched them open for the party to see.

"I say, though, Mr Pollard," said d.i.c.k.

"Cap'n Pollard, if you wouldn't mind, young gentleman," said the great bluff Cornishman, smiling at d.i.c.k.

"Captain Pollard," said d.i.c.k, "do these sharks ever attack a man or a boy when bathing?"

"Never heerd o' such a thing," said the captain; "but the mischief they do to a fisherman's craft, sir, is something terrible--lines, nets, fish--they destroy everything. Like to take the shark home with you, sir?"

"No, thank you!" cried Mr Temple, shaking his head; "no sharks, thank you!"

"You're welcome, if you like, sir," said the captain; "but if you don't care for her, I'll send her to London to my salesman, and he'll show her as a cur'osity."