“But I can’t hold it!” cried Arthur, who was shivering with excitement.
“Oh, yes! you can, my lad,” said Josh coolly. “I’ll show you. Now, hold tight.”
Arthur clung to the line with both hands in desperation; and it seemed to him that the great fish at the end of it was trying to draw his shoulders out of their sockets.
“It’s too hard. It cuts my hands. It’s horrible!”
“Let him go, then,” said Josh laughing; “there’s plenty of line. Let it run through your hands.”
“It burns them,” cried Arthur desperately. “Ah!” he exclaimed with a sigh of delight, “it’s gone!”
“Haul in the line, then!” said Josh grimly, while Will, who knew what it meant, touched Dick on the shoulder so that he should watch.
Arthur began to haul in the slack line for a few feet, and then he shouted again:
“Here’s another one bigger than the last!” he cried. “I cannot hold it.”
“Let it go, then,” said Josh; and Arthur once more slackened the line, which ran fast for a yard, and then fell loose.