Phil now came running up, carrying a fish nearly as long as his arm. As he came near, he raised the flapping fish, whose tail had been dragging in the sand, and gave a shout; but when he saw the magnificent creature, which was still plunging and rolling at the end of the line which Chap held firmly in his hand, his countenance fell.
“What a whopper!” he cried. “Why, mine is nothing to it!”
“No,” said Adam, “but yours is a blue-fish, and we’ll have him for supper. Don’t be cast down, captain; you’ll have plenty of chances yet for blue-fish, bass, and lots of other good fellers. I’ll take the hook out of this young elephant of your’n, as he might snap your fingers, and then we’ll shove him into the water. He looks lively enough to come to all right when he gets into salt water agen, and there’s no use in lettin’ fish die here if you ain’t goin’ to use ’em.”
“All right!” said Chap. “I’m captain, and it was my duty to catch the biggest fish, and I’ve done it. And now the quicker we cook this little fellow for supper, the better, for I’m dreadfully hungry.”
The “little fellow,” a fish nearly two feet long, was taken in charge by Adam, and carried to the camp-ground, where a large fire was already blazing.
“It was havin’ this paper along,” said Adam, “that put it into my head to try baked fish for supper.”
Having dressed the fish, Adam rolled it in the brown paper, and pushing away a portion of the fire, he scooped out a place in the warm sand and ashes, and covered up the fish therein. Then the fire was built up again, and was allowed to blaze away until Adam thought his fish was done.
When the brown paper was removed, the skin of the blue-fish came off with it, leaving the white flesh perfectly baked and temptingly hot.
There was salt and pepper among their rations, and with the fish and the bread and butter and biscuits, the boys and Adam made a splendid meal, although they had nothing to drink with it but the water from their canteens.
“The way to make a tip-top meal off of fish,” said Chap, “is to catch it yourself—or else let some other fellow do it.”