of fern, and whose thumb-hole
seemed to comically leer up at the boys like some great eye. Then there
was a pair of big, sturdy legs, upon which rested a great felt hat,
everything else being covered in by a great opened-out white umbrella,
perfectly useless then, for, as Will had said, all was now in the shade.

Both boys had a good look down, drew back and gazed at each other with
questioning eyes, before Josh, whose white teeth were all on view,
stooped down and made a slight suggestion, a kind of pantomime, that he
should drag up a great buckler fern by the roots, and drop it plump on
the umbrella spike.

Will's eyes flashed, and he puckered up his mouth and pouted his lips as
if in the act of emitting a great round No.

Josh's eyes began to question, Will's teeth to glisten, as he thrust one
hand into his pocket and drew out a ring of tough water-cord. This he
pitched to his companion, with a sign that he should open it out, while
from another pocket he took out a small tin box, opened the lid, and
drew forth a little cork, into whose soft substance the barbs of a
large, bright blue, double eel-hook had been thrust.

Busy-fingered Josh watched every movement, and it was his turn now to
shake his sides and indulge in a hearty, silent laugh, as he handed one
end of the unwound cord.

This was deftly fitted on, and then, with every movement carefully
watched and enjoyed, Will silently crept into the gnarled oak, till he
was seated astride one of the horizontal projecting boughs, which began
to play elastically up and down, but made no sign of loosening the
parent stem, firmly anchored in the crevices of the limestone rock.

It was only a few feet out, and then the boy was exactly over the
umbrella, some forty feet below. Then he began to fish, glancing from
time to time through the leaves, as he sat watching and rubbing his
hands.

The first gentle cast was a failure; so was the second; but the third
time never fails. Will twisted the cord on his fingers, with the result
that the double hook turned right over, and the barbed points, in answer
to a gentle twitch, took hold of the white fabric, after passing right
through.

Had there been earth below, in which the umbrella staff could have been
stuck, the manoeuvre must have failed; but the shelf was nearly all
rock, against some fragments of which the stick was propped. There was
no failure then. There came up a faint rasping sound as of wood over
stone