“That ought to do it,” he said. “She won’t come no further. Over with it.”
Will was standing up now in the bows swinging a grapnel to and fro, and after letting it sway three or four times he launched it from him, and it fell with a splash a score of yards away, taking with it another line, upon which when Dick hauled he found that the grapnel was fast in a rugged mass of rock like that which they had just left; and with grapnel and killick at either end of the boat, they were anchored, as Josh pointed out, right in the middle of the deep hole.
“You can find rocks all round us,” he said, “on which you could have pitched the killick, and they all go straight down like the side of house or like that there Mew Rock where the birds are.”
There was something awe-inspiring in the place, for the boat was in the shadow of the Mew Rock, behind which lay the sun, hastening to his rest, his ruddy beams streaming now on either side of what looked like a rugged black tower standing against a blazing sky, and for the moment even Dick felt oppressed by the solemnity and beauty of the scene.
Away across the head of the bay lay the fishing village from which they had come, with its lattice-windows glittering and flashing in the sunshine, which gilded the luggers that were slowly stealing out to the fishing-ground miles away. Some of them were urged forward by long oars so as to get them beyond the shelter of the land, and into the range of the soft breeze that was rippling the bay far out, though where the fishing party lay the heaving sea, save where it broke upon the rocks, was as smooth as glass.
“Now, young gentlemen,” said Josh quietly, “congers is queer customers; sometimes they’ll bite.”
Arthur shivered.
“Sometimes they won’t. I think to-night we shall ketch some.”
“Two lines out, eh, Josh?” said Will.
“Ay, two’s enough,” replied the fisherman; “let the young gents ketch ’em, and we’ll do the gawfing and unhooking. You ’tend Master Dickard there; I’ll ’tend Master Taffarthur, and let’s see who’ll get first fish. Starboard’s our side, port’s yourn.”