“It’s a big cat! Come on, Hal, and grab him, or he’ll tear out the hook!” shouted Ned, wildly excited.
Carefully he seized the cord, and gently, so as not to frighten the fish, drew him alongside.
“He’s caught just through the edge of his lip! Watch out!” warned Ned.
Hal, regardless of any peril to himself, leaned far over. The victim, sluggish but far from sleepy, looked like a young whale. Hal boldly thrust his fingers in behind the cat’s gills, to haul him bodily over the gunwale; there was a sudden gigantic flurry, a splash, and presto, change! Instead of it being the cat in the boat, it was Hal in the slough!
Ned gazed in alarm; but before he could move to the rescue Hal’s head broke the surface a few yards off.
“Here’s an oar, Hal!” called Ned.
“Uh-uh!” protested Hal, shaking his head while he blew the water from his nostrils. “I’m all right. Did the fish get away?”
“I guess so—no, he didn’t, either!” announced Ned gladly.
“I’ll swim around to the other side of the boat, and you can be seeing if you can’t lift him in,” declared Hal. “Don’t you tumble over, too,” he added, as a caution.