"Pull in the line a bit, Frank."
Frank did so, and said,—
"She must be clinging to the bottom. I cannot move her," and he pulled a little harder.
"I say," he cried, "I felt such a sharp tug. I do believe the big pike has got hold of her."
"Nonsense!" said the others.
"But it isn't nonsense," said Frank, and he held the rod bent so that they could see the top twitching violently.
"It is the pike!" Frank exclaimed excitedly, and he immediately let the line run loose, so that the pike might have room to gorge his prey.
"He must have seized the water-hen as she dived," said Dick.
"Yes, and won't we give him plenty of time to gorge. I don't want to miss him now we have got such a chance," said Frank.
And in spite of their impatience they gave the pike half-an-hour to swallow the bird, and then, at the end of that time, there were sundry twitchings of the point of the rod, and the line was taken out by jerks of a foot or two at a time.