CHAPTER XXIII.
Setting Night-lines.--An Encounter with Poachers.
Old Cox met Frank one day, and said to him in his broad Norfolk, whichwould be unintelligible to you were I to render it faithfully,--
"I wish you would give me some more fish, Mr. Merivale. You catchplenty, and if you would give me some that you doesn't want, I wouldtake them to Norwich market and sell them. I sorely want to buy a pairof blankets for the old woman and me afore the winter comes."
"Well, Cox, you shall have all we catch and don't want," said Frank; andwhen he saw his friends he said,--
"Let us make a mighty night-line, and set it like the long lines theCromer fishermen set for cods, and lay it in the broad for eels, andgive all we catch to Cox. Two or three nights' haul will set him up forthe winter."
So they made a long night-line. They bought a quarter of a mile of stoutcord, and at distances of a yard from each other they fastened eel-hooksby means of short lengths of fine water-cord. Cox himself got them theworms, and then one fine night they rowed the punt to the middle of thebroad, and set the night-line in the deep water of the channel.
"Well," said Dick, "this is the longest and most wearisome job I haveever done, and old Cox ought to be infinitely obliged to us. We havebeen two hours and a half setting this line."
Early in the morning they went out, and took up the night-line, but totheir great surprise they found but very few eels on it, and plenty ofbream, which they did not want. They were much disappointed at this, andwent to Bell, and asked him the reason, for there were plenty of eels inthe broad.
"Where did you set the line?" he asked.
"In the deep water of the channel."
"Then that is just the place where you ought not to have set it. Atnight the eels make for the shallow water to feed, and if the grass iswet they will even wriggle out among it. I have seen them myself many atime. You must set your line along the edge where the water is about afoot or two feet deep, and you will have as many eels as you can carry."
They tried again, and set the line as Bell had directed them, and thenext morning they began to haul it in. The first hook came up bare. Sodid the second, and the third. As they hauled in the line their faceslooked very blank, for every hook was bare.
"We are not the first," said Frank savagely, "some other fellows havebeen here before us, and have taken up the line, and robbed it. Theymust have watched us laying it. Now I'll tell you what we will do. Wewill set it again to-night, and watch in the yacht, and if we see anyfellows touching it we will give them a drubbing. Are you game?"
"Yes," answered both Dick and Jimmy readily, "we are."
So the third time they set the line, and then as soon as it got darkthey crept quietly on board the yacht. They had set the line within 150yards of the _Swan_, and as there was a glitter on the water from thereflection of the stars, they could see if anyone approached it.
"What shall we do if they do touch it?" said Dick. "How shall we get atthem?"
"I did intend to take the boat, and row after them," answered Frank;"but see, we are to windward of them, and there is a good breeze, sothat if we let the yacht drift towards them until they take the alarm,and then run the sails up, we shall overtake them."
"And what shall we do then?" said Jimmy, who was becoming a littlenervous.
"Run them down--the water is not deep enough to drown them--and takeaway their boat if we can, and then make them come and beg our pardonbefore we give it up to them. If they attempt to board us, knock themover again."
Frank spoke decidedly and hotly, for he was much put out at the theft ofthe fish. His family had so befriended the poor people around, that itwas very ungrateful of some of them to rob their line. His spirits rose,too, with a force he could not resist, at the thought of a midnightengagement, and the chance of outwitting those who had thought to outwithim. Dick and Jimmy were ready to follow their dux at any instant, andanywhere.
"They won't come till about midnight," said Frank, "so we may as welltake a little sleep."
About two o'clock they were broad awake, and lying flat on the deck ofthe yacht, peering into the darkness in the direction of the night-line.
"Hush," said Dick; "I heard a noise like that of oars."
They listened, and sure enough they heard the noise of oars splashing inthe water, and grating in the rowlocks.
"Here they are," whispered Frank. "We shall soon be in the thick of it."
Dick had been trembling for some time in his nervousness, and he thoughtsomewhat bitterly, "What is the matter with me? Am I a coward?" and hefelt ashamed at the thought. It was not cowardice, however, but purenervousness, and the moment he heard the sound of the approaching voiceshis nervousness departed, and he felt as cool and collected as Frank.
A black patch soon became visible on the water, and they could justdistinguish the outline of the boat. A splash in the water told themthat the mooring stone had been thrown out, and that the robbers were atwork. Frank quietly slipped his mooring, and the yacht drifted quicklytowards the men. They were soon near enough to see that there were twomen in the boat, and they heard one of them say in a startled tone,--
"I say, Jack, that yacht's adrift."
"Is there any one on board, did you see?" said the other.
"No, I don't think so."
"Yes, there is though. Pull up that stone and row off as fast as youcan," answered his companion.
"Up with the sail!" shouted Frank, as he flew to the helm. Dick andJimmy threw themselves on the halyard, and the great sail rose withsurprising quickness against the dark night. The men in the boat werenow pulling away at the top of their speed, but with the wind dead aftthe yacht bore swiftly down upon them. The water was only about two feetdeep, and began to shallow. The yacht's centre boards were up, but stillshe could not go much further, and they could tell that they werecontinually touching the mud.
"They will escape us," said Dick.
"No, there is a deep bay just where they are rowing," said Jimmy.
As the water deepened the yacht started forwards, and in another minutethey were on the runaways. Crash went their bows against the boat: shewas at once capsized, and her occupants were struggling in the water.One of them scrambled on board the _Swan_, and rushed aft with an oarupraised to strike, but Frank laid the helm over as he put the yachtabout, and the boom struck the fellow on the head and knocked himoverboard.
Meanwhile Dick had with the boat-hook tried to catch hold of the boat.In this he failed, but he got hold of something far more important, andthat was a large fine-mesh net, which the poachers had no doubt intendedto use after robbing the night-line. With such nets the damage done tofishing is enormous. Shoals of fishes as small as minnows, and uselessfor anything except manure, are massacred with them, and it is by theconstant use of such nets that the fishing on the broads falls now sofar short of what it used to be. Night-lines set for eels are notpoaching or destructive. The quantity of eels is so great, that, as longas the young ones are spared, either night-lines or nets of the properkind may be used.
The yacht swept on, leaving the men up to their waists in the water, andswearing horribly. Frank felt a wild impulse to return and fight them,for he was of a fighting blood, such as a soldier should have, but hethought, "If we go back there are sure to be some hard blows, and I haveno right to take Dick or Jimmy into a scrimmage and perhaps get themseverely hurt, for they are not so strong as I am," so he refrained, andthey sailed back to the boat-house, and waited until the dawn. Theiradversaries dared not attack them, but went off out of sight andhearing.
In the morning they took up the line, and were well-rewarded for theirprevious trouble. The eels they took pretty well loaded the donkey-cartwhich old Cox had borrowed, and he took them to Norwich and made a goodprofit out of them.
Having amused themselves once with the night-lines the boys did not careto use them again, for it was _infra dig._ to catch fish for profit.However the profits were good to other people, so they gav
e the line toold Cox, and told him that he must get some one to set it, and go shareswith him.
The next day Frank walked down to the village public-house and stuck upthe following notice in the bar,--
"If the person to whom the nets I have belong, will call at my house andclaim them, he shall have the nets and a good thrashing."
Frank was five feet eleven inches high, and well built in addition, andhe had always a look on his face which said "I mean what I say;" and thenets were never claimed.