ew out the head of his prize, the rest
having been bitten off as cleanly as a pair of scissors would go through
a sprat, just below its gills.

The young man turned a comically chagrined face to his unfortunate
companions.

"I say, this is fishing with a vengeance," cried Panton.

"Starvation sport," said the mate.

"Tommy, old lad," whispered Wriggs, "I have gone fishing as a boy, and
ketched all manner o' things, heels, gudgeons, roach and dace, and one
day I ketched a 'normous jack, as weighed almost a pound. I ketched him
with a wurrum, I did, but I never seed no fishing like this here."

"Nobody never said you did, mate," growled Smith.

"Well, we did not come here to catch fish for the big ones to eat," said
the mate. "Have another try, and you must be sharper. Look here, Mr
Lane--No, no, don't take that head off," he cried, "that will make a
splendid bait. Throw it in as it is."

Oliver nodded, threw out the hook and lead again, and saw that the bait
must have fallen into a shoal right out in the opening, for there was a
tremendous splashing instantly, a drag, and he was fast into another,
evidently much larger fish.

"Now then, bravo, haul away, my lad," cried the mate. "You must have
this one. Ah! Gone!"

"No, not yet," said Lane, who was hauling away, for a huge fish had
dashed at his captive but struck it sidewise, driving it away instead of
getting a good grip, and in a few moments the prisoner was close in, but
followed by the enemy, which made another dash, its head and shoulders
flashing out of the water, close up to the rock. Then it curved over
and showed its glittering back and half-moon shaped tail, as it plunged
down again, while Lane had his captive well out upon the rock, looking
the strangest two-headed monster imaginable, for the hook was fast in
its jaws, with the head used for a bait close up alongside, held tightly
in place by the beaten-out end of the shank of the line.

"Well done: a fifteen pounder," cried the mate, as the captive was
secured, the sailors hurriedly getting it into the biscuit bag they had
brought, for fear that it should leap from the rock back into the sea.

Five minutes after Drew hooked another fish, but it was carried off by a
pursuer and the hook was drawn in bare. Almost at the same moment
Panton struck another and then stamped about the rock in a rage, for
before he could get it to the land it was seized by a monster, there was
a tug, a snap, an