“No, no,” cried Dick. “Here, lend me the pole. I’ll soon catch him.”
Dave smiled, but did not give up the pole.
“Nay, lad, I’ll ketch up to un. Wait a bit; fish’ll be tired ’fore Dave Gittans.”
The pursuit continued in the most exasperating way, and to an onlooker it would have been exceedingly absurd, since it seemed as if the man and his companions were off oh the great mere with its open spaces of water and islands of reeds, and lanes through them like so many little crooked canals, in pursuit of a white pig’s-bladder tied round the middle to make it double. There it would lie till the boat neared, and then off it went with a skim that took it twenty, thirty, or forty yards. Next time the boat neared, instead of the skim it would begin to dance as if in mockery, bobbing down whenever Dick reached over with his hook, and always keeping out of his reach, just as if a mocking spirit directed all its movements and delighted in tantalising them. Again, after a long run over the deep water, it would be quite still, and the punt would be sent forward so cautiously that the capture seemed to be a moral certainty; but so sure as Dick crept to the extreme end of the punt and reached out, there was a tremor for an instant visible on the water and the bladder disappeared.
“He must be a monster!” cried Dick, whose face was scarlet. “Oh, Dave, do go more quietly this time!”
“Let me try!” cried Tom, making a snatch at the hook.
“No! I’ll have him,” said Dick. “I wouldn’t miss this chance for the world!”
“Ay, I’ll goo up quiet-like,” said Dave, pausing to give himself an opium pill before resuming his task. “Yow be quicker this time, lad—a bold dash and you’ll get him!”
The double-looking bladder seemed now to be quite divided in two, for the string had grown tighter in being drawn through the water, and as it lay quite still, about forty yards from them, it looked a task that a child might have done, to go up to it softly and hook the string.
“Now!” said Dave as he propelled the boat stern foremost by working the pole behind as a fish does its tail.