ould have been broken, or Tom would have had
to let go.

"Why, you've got hold of a stump!" cried Dick. "What shall we do,
Dave--cat the line?"

"Howd on, lads, steady! Ah, that's moved him!"

For just then, in place of the steady strain, there were a series of
short sharp snatches.

"Eel, eel!" cried Dick; and at the end of a few minutes' exciting play,
a huge eel was drawn over the side of the boat, tied up in quite a knot,
into which it had thrown itself just at the last.

"Coot the band close to his neb," [mouth or beak] said Dave, and this
being done, and the line saved from tangling, the captive untwisted
itself, and began to explore the bottom of the boat, a fine thick fellow
nearly thirty inches long, and the possibility was that it might escape
over the stern, till Dave put a stop to the prospect by catching it
quickly, and before it could glide out of his hand, throwing it into the
basket, where the pike resented its coming by an angry flapping of the
tail.

"That's better," said Dick, placing the trimmer in the other basket. "I
say, Dave, would a fellow like that bite?"

"Nigh tak' your finger off: they're as strong as strong. Say, lads,
shall we go home now, or try the other ligger?"

"Oh, let's get the last!" cried Dick; "there may be something on it."

Dave nodded, and poled steadily over to where the last trimmer lay off
the reedy point, and perfectly motionless, till they were within ten
yards, when there was a heavy swirl on the water, and the bladder dived
under, reappeared a couple of dozen yards away, and went off rapidly
along beside the reed-bed.

"Is that another perch?" cried Tom, as Dave began to ply his pole
rapidly, and the boat was urged on in pursuit.

"Nay, that's no perch," cried Dave, who for the first time looked
interested. "It's a pike, and a good one."

"Think it's that monster that took down the duck?" cried Dick.

"Nay, lad, I d'know," said the decoy-man; "all I say is that it be a
girt lungeing pike o' some kind."

Dave plied his pole, and the boys, in their excitement, turned each a
hand into an oar, and swept it through the water as the pursuit was kept
up, for the bladder went sailing away, then stopped, and as soon as the
punt drew near was off again. Sometimes it kept to the surface, but now
and then, when in places where Dave's pole would not touch the bottom,
no sooner did the punt glide up, than there was an eddying swirl, and
the bladder was taken d