onstantly more rare, until at last
only the cod remained.

Aboard the _Charming Lass_ the squid "jigging" went on for a couple of
hours. Then suddenly the school passed and the sport ended abruptly.

But the deck of the schooner was a mass of the bait, and the tubs of
salt clams brought from Freekirk Head could be saved until later.

Rockwell, who had been looking out forward, suddenly called Code's
attention to a flock of sea-pigeons floating on the water a mile
ahead. As the skipper looked he saw the fowl busily diving and
"upending," and he knew they had struck the edge of the Banks; for
water-fowl will always dive in shoal water, and a skipper sailing to
the Banks from a distance always looks for this sign.

An hour later, when the cook had sent out his call for the first half,
Code made Ellinwood stay on deck and bring the schooner to an
anchorage after sounding.

The sounding lead is a long slug, something like a window-weight, at
the bottom of which is a saucer-shaped hollow. The leadsman, a young
fellow from Freekirk Head, took his place on the schooner's rail
outside the forerigging. The lead was attached to a line and, as the
schooner forged slowly ahead, close-hauled, the youth swung the lead
in ever-widening semicircles.

"Let your pigeon fly!" cried Pete, and the lead swung far ahead and
fell with a sullen _plop_ into the dark blue water. The line ran out
until it suddenly slackened just under the leadsman. He fingered a
mark.

"Forty fathoms!" he called.

Five minutes later another sounding was taken and proved that the
water was gradually shoaling. At thirty fathoms Pete ordered the
anchor let go and a last sounding taken.

Before the lead flew he rubbed a little tallow into the saucer, and
this, when it came up, was full of sand, mud, and shells, telling the
sort of bottom under the schooner.

Pete called Code, and together they read it like a book--favorable
fishing ground, though not the best.

While the second half ate, the first half took in all canvas and
reefed it with the exception of the mainsail. This was unbent entirely
and stowed away. In its place was bent on a riding sail, for until
their salt was all wet there would be very little occasion for any
sort of sailing, their only progress being as they ambled leisurely
from berth to berth.

"Dories overside!" sung out Code. "Starboard first."

A rope made fast to a mainstay and furnished with a hook at its end
was slipped into