and said he'd had a terrible fight
with: don't you remember?"

"Yes, I remember; he caught it on a dark thunderstormy day, and said
when he hooked it first, baiting with a pilchard, it came so easy that
he thought it was a little one, and swam up every time he slackened his
line till he got it close to the top. But when he went to hook it in
with his gaff he fell back over the thwart, because as soon as it saw
him it opened its mouth and came over the gunwale with a rush, and
hunted him round the boat till he hit it over the head with his little
axe."

"Yes, I remember," said Vince, taking up the narrative; "and then he
said they had a terrible fight, for it twisted its tail round his leg
and struck at him, getting hold of his tarpaulin coat with its teeth and
holding on till he got the blade of the axe into the cut he had made and
sawed away till he got through the backbone. Oh yes, we heard him tell
the story lots of times about how strong it was, and how it bruised his
leg where it hit him with its tail, and how he was beginning to feel
that, in spite of its head being nearly off, it seemed as if it would
finish him, when all at once it dropped down in the bottom of the boat
and only just heaved about. I used to believe it all, but he always
puts more and more to it whenever he tells the tale. I don't believe it
now."

"But it was a monster."

"Yes: two inches short of seven feet long, and as big round as a
cod-fish; and I don't see why there mayn't be some twice as big in the
Scraw. But I'm not going to believe in there being anything else, Mike;
and we're going to see."

"Nothing horrid living in the caves?"

"Bogies and mermen and Goblin Jacks? No: stuff!"

"But up the cliff: you don't think there's anything there that makes it
so that you can't go? I mean--"

"Dragons like father has in that old Latin book about Switzerland?"

"Yes; you've got pictures of them,--horrid things with wings, that lived
in the mountains and passes."

"All gammon!" cried Vince. "People used to believe in all kinds of
nonsense--magicians, and fiery serpents and dragons, and things that we
laugh about now. There, one can't help feeling a bit shrinky, after all
we've heard and been frightened with by people ever since we were little
bits of chaps; but I mean to go. There's nothing worse about the Scraw
than there is about other dangerous places."

"Ah! you say so now because it's broad daylight and the sun shines,