“Won’t it?” said Josh laughing. “But it will if you put a pilchar’ on it. That there wire as is run round the line is to keep the congers from biting it in two.”
“Oh! but, Josh, a conger wouldn’t bite through a line like that, would he?” cried Dick as he tugged at his oar.
“Just as easy, sir, as you would through a bit o’ cotton after you’d sewed a button on your shirt.”
“Why, they must be regular nippers!” cried Dick.
“Nippers, sir? Why, they go at a big dead fish if it’s lying in the water, take a good mouthful, and then set their long bodies and tails to work, and spin round and round like a gimlet or a ship augur, and bore the piece right out.”
“Oh! I say, Josh, don’t you know! He’s making that story up, isn’t he, Will?”
“No,” said Will seriously; “it is quite true. Congers have a way of spinning themselves round like that. Don’t you see those swivels on the line?”
“Yes,” said Dick, “I see ’em.”
“That’s because the congers spin round so. If we did not use swivels they’d twist the line all in a tangle before you could get them out.”
“Why, they’re regular sea-serpents,” said Dick.