Cormorant Crag Part 48

"No need to. You wouldn't let me go alone. Now then, we'll get some fish, and have a good fry."

Vince ran to the wall, where their lines hung upon a peg; and now they noticed, for the first time, that there had been a high tide during the late storm, for the sand had been driven up in a ridge at one side of the cave mouth, but had only come in some twenty or thirty feet.

Their baits, in a box pierced with holes to let the water in and out, were quite well and lively; and putting some of these in a tray, they went cautiously out from rock to rock in the wide archway till there was deep water just beyond for quite another twenty feet; then rocks again, and beyond them the gurgling rush and hurry of the swift currents, while the pool before them, though in motion, looked smooth and still, save that a close inspection showed that the surface was marked with the lines of a gentle current, which apparently rose from below the rocks on the right.

It was an ideal place for sea-fis.h.i.+ng, for the great deep pool was free from rocks save those which surrounded it, and not a thread of weed or wrack to be seen ready to entangle their lines or catch their hooks; while they knew from old experience that it was the sheltered home of large shoals, which sought it as a sanctuary from the seals or large fish which preyed upon them.

In addition, the place they stood upon was a dry, rocky platform, shut off from the cave by a low ridge, against which they could lean their backs, whilst another much lower ridge was just in front, as if on purpose to hide them from the fish in the crystal water of the great pool.

Partly behind them and away to their right was the entrance to the seals' hole, from which came a hollow splas.h.i.+ng from time to time, as something moved; every sound making Mike turn his head quickly in that direction, and bringing a smile to Vince's lips.

"Ah! it's all very well," said Mike sourly, "but everybody isn't so brave as you are."

"Might as well have lit our fire before we came here," said Vince, ignoring the remark.

"What's the good of lighting the fire till we know whether we shall get any fish?" said Mike. "We didn't catch one last time, though you could see hundreds."

"To boil the kettle and make some tea," replied Vince; and he rose to get hold of the bait, pausing to look back over the ridge which shut him off from the cave, and hesitating.

"I think I'll go back and light the fire," he said, as he fixed his eyes on the dark spot which they made their fireplace, it looking almost black from the bright spot they occupied, which was as far as they could get out towards the open cove.

"No, no; sit down," said Mike impatiently. "We didn't catch any last time because you would keep dancing about on the rocks here, and showing the fish that you were come on purpose to hook them. We can get a good fire in a few minutes. There's plenty of wood, and we're in no hurry."

"You mean you kept dancing about," retorted Vince. "Very well," he added, seating himself, "it shan't be me, Ladle: I won't stir. But it's the wrong time for them. If we were to come here just before daylight, or to stop till it was dark, we should be hauling them out as fast as we could throw in our--our"--_splash_--"lines."

For as Vince spoke he had resumed his seat, deftly placed a lug-worm on his hook and thrown the lead into the water, where it sank rapidly, drawing after it the line over the low ridge of rock.

"There," said Vince, as his companion followed his example, "I won't move, and I won't make a sound."

"Don't," said Mike: "I do want to catch something this time."

"All right: I won't speak if you don't."

"First who speaks pays sixpence," said Mike.

"Agreed. Silence!"

The fis.h.i.+ng began, but fis.h.i.+ng did not mean catching, and the time went on with nothing to take their attention but an unusual clamouring on the part of the sea-birds, which, instead of sitting about preening and drying their plumage, or with their feathers almost on end, till they looked like b.a.l.l.s as they sat asleep in the sun, kept on rising in flights, making a loud fluttering whistling as they swept round and round the cove, constantly pa.s.sing out of sight before swooping down again upon the great rocks which shut out the view of the open sea.

Lines were drawn up, rebaited, and thrown in again, with the faint splashes made by the leads, and they tried close in to the side, to the other side, to right and left; but all in vain,--the baits were eaten off, and they felt that something was at their hooks, but whether they struck directly, or gave plenty of time, it was always the same, nothing was taken and the hours pa.s.sed away.

They were performing, though, what was for them quite a feat, for each boy had fully made up his mind that he would not have to pay that sixpence. They looked at each other, and laughingly grimaced, and moved their lips rapidly, as if forming words, and abused the fish silently for not caring to be caught, but not a word was spoken; till all at once, after a tremendous display of patience, Vince suddenly struck and cried:

"Got him at last!"

"Sixpence!" said Mike.

"All right!" said Vince quietly: "I was ready to pay ninepence so as to say something. I've got him, though, and he's a big one too."

"Be steady, then. Don't lose him, for I'm sick of trying, and I did want for us to have something for tea."

"Oh, I've hooked him right enough; but he don't stir."

"Bah! Caught in the bottom."

"Oh no, I'm not. He was walking right away with the bait, and when I struck I felt him give a regular good wallop."

"Then it's a conger, and it's got its tail round a rock."

"May be," said Vince. "Well, congers aren't bad eating."

"B-r-r-ur!" shuddered Mike. "I hate hooking them. Line gets twisted into such a knot. You may cut it up: I shan't."

"Yes, I'll cut him in chunks and fry him when I get him," said Vince.

"He's coming, but it isn't a conger. Comes up like a flat fish, only there can't be any here."

"Oh, I don't know," said Mike. "I daresay there's plenty of sand down below."

"Well, it is a flat fish, and a heavy one too," said Vince, as he hauled in cautiously, full of excitement, drawing in foot after foot of his line; and then he cried, with a laugh, "Why, it's a big crab!"

"Then you'll lose it, for certain. 'Tisn't hooked."

"Shall I lose him!" said Vince, with another laugh, as he lifted out his prize for it to come on to the rock with a bang. "Why, he has got the line twisted all round his claw, and--Ah! would you bite! I've got him safe this time, Mike."

Safe enough; for, after the huge claws of the monstrous crab had been carefully tied with a couple of bits of fis.h.i.+ng line, it was quite a task to disentangle the creature, which, in its eagerness to seize the bait, had pa.s.sed the line round and under its curious armoured joints, and in its struggles to escape, made matters worse.

"This is about the finest we've seen, Mike," said Vince. "Well, I'm sorry for him, and we'll try and kill him first; but his fate is to be cooked in his own sh.e.l.l, and delicious he'll be."

"I should like to take him home," said Mike, as he wound up his line.

"So should I; but if either of us did we should be bothered with questions as to where we got it, and we couldn't say. We shall have to cook it and eat it ourselves, Ladle. Come on; we don't want any more fish to-day."

They stepped back over the rocks, and while Mike hung up the lines Vince thrust his prize into the big creel they had close to the place they used for their fire, and then hurried towards the inner cave to fetch the tinder-box and a portion of the wood they had stored up there for firing, as well as the extra provisions they had brought with them that day.

"It strikes me, Mikey, that we're going to have a regular feast," said Vince. "Lucky I caught that fellow!--if I hadn't we should have come short off."

"Hark at him bragging! I say, why didn't you catch a lobster instead?"

_Phew_! came a soft whistle from the opening into the pa.s.sage--a whistle softened by its journey through the subterranean place; but sounding pretty loudly in their ears, and as if it had been given by some one half-way through.

"Lobster!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Vince excitedly. "Why, there he is coming down."

"Oh, Vince!" cried Mike, "that spoils all. I felt sure he would, after falling in as he did. He saw the hole, and he is searching it."

"Yes, and he'll come right on, feeling sure we're here."

"What shall we do? I know: frighten him."

"Frighten him? How?"