water; but all in vain; not a single fish came to his side, while on the
other side Ensign Long was having tremendous luck.

Wearied out with trying, the lad sat at last holding his line in one
hand, but paying no heed to it, for his eyes were directed beneath the
awning, where all looked dim as compared with the sun-glare outside; and
here from time to time he saw Long enter with some new prize, which the
doctor took, and held up to the ladies, the more brilliantly coloured
being consigned to one or the other of a couple of buckets of water,
which one of the soldiers in undress uniform, whom the middy recognised
as the sentry of the previous night, kept replenishing with fresh water
dipped from the sea.

"He isn't a bad-looking chap," said the young midshipman, as he sat on
the bulwarks in a very insecure position. "I wish I was filling the
buckets and holding up the fish for the ladies to see."

He glanced once at his trailing line, and saw the bait flash in the
water, then he glanced back at the party beneath the awning.

"How black Captain Smithers looks," he said. "That soldier must have
splashed him, or something, for he looks as if he was going to have him
tried by court-martial. Here I think I shall drop it. Hang it all! if
that fellow Long hasn't caught another. What did she say?" he cried,
drawing in his breath with a hiss. "`You are ever so much more
fortunate than Mr Roberts.' Oh, I'd give something to have her say
that to me, and--murder! I've got him this time--"

He made a convulsive grasp at a rope, and just saved himself from
falling overboard, for a vigorous snatch made by a large fish at his
bait had been quite sufficient to disturb his equilibrium, his activity
alone saving him from a terrible ducking, if not from being drowned.

He recovered himself though, and thought no more of his escape in the
excitement of finding that he had hooked a heavyish fish, and which took
a good deal of playing; for just as it seemed exhausted, there was a
fierce, furious snatch at the line, and the captive appeared to have
grown heavier.

"He's almost too heavy to lift out, Dick," he cried to the old sailor
who came up.

"Ease him then, sir, and take it easy," said Dick; "tire him quite out,
and then haul in quickly."

Bob Roberts obeyed, and to his intense delight, gradually hauled his
fish to the surface, where he could not make out what it was by its
shape, only that it was a blaze of blue, and go