im!" cried Dick excitedly. "I've got such a big
one, Taff; he's trying to pull my arms out of the sockets!"

Tug--pull--jerk--drag--the line was running here and there; and if Dick
had not twisted it round his hands it would have been drawn through
them. As it was, it cut into them, but he held on like a hero.

"Let the line go!" Will kept saying--"let the line go!" but Dick did
not seem to understand. If he did, he was not disposed to let it run,
and, as he thought, lose the fish; and so he dragged and hauled hand
over hand, with Arthur shivering and ready, but for sheer shame, to get
right away in the bows, as the struggle went on.

"Here he is!" cried Dick at last. "Oh, what a monster! and how he
pulls!"

Arthur did not turn his head, and so he saw nothing of what followed,
for he felt sick with dread; but there was a scuffling and a splashing,
then a beating and flapping in the boat.

"Keep him clear of the line, Will, lad!" said Josh.

"Right!" was the laconic reply; and then there were two or three heavy
dull blows, as if some one were striking something soft. And now Arthur
turned round to see that Will had the great head of an eel between his
knees, out of which he cleverly twisted the hook, and held the slowly
writhing creature up at arm's-length.

"Oh, what a monster!" cried Dick.

"Only a little one," said Will, laughing. "It is not above fifteen or
sixteen pounds."

"Why, how big do they grow, then?" cried Dick, as the eel was thrown
into the locker and the lid shut down.

"I've seen them ninety pounds!" said Will. "Josh, there, saw one a
hundred. Didn't you, Josh?"

"Hundred and three pounds and an half!" said Josh. "We shall have some
sport to-night!"

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

ARTHUR CATCHES HIS FIRST CONGER, AND TAKES A LESSON IN SOMETHING ELSE.

"Oh!" shouted Arthur; "oh! something's pulling me out of the--"

Boat he would have said, for he had turned the line round his right-hand
to keep the lead from the bottom; and all at once it had seemed to him
that there was a slight quiver of the line; then it was drawn softly a
little way, and then there was a heavy sustained pull that took his arm
over the side, and he seemed as if he were about to follow it, only Josh
leaned towards him, and took hold of the line beyond his hand.

"Untwist it, my lad; don't turn it round your fingers like that. That's
right. Now, take hold with both hands."

"But I can't hold it!" cried Arthur