“Oh yes,” responded his listeners with alacrity; all, that is, but Mrs Gilmour, who assented somewhat dubiously, as if she could not quite grasp the idea, requiring the whole thing to be explained to her over again, when she declared herself still “all in a fog!”
Her brother, however, the barrister, comprehended it at once.
“I should think it was great fun,” he observed; “so I would like to come with you.”
“Do,” said the Captain, with much heartiness. “You’ll be amply repaid for the trouble. It is intensely exciting waiting and watching for what the trawl will bring up. It’s just like dipping your hands in the ‘lucky bag,’ Miss Nellie, at Christmas-time.”
“Do you ever find any very curious things, Captain?” she inquired on being thus appealed to. “I mean really curious things!”
“Oh yes, my dear,” replied the old sailor. “I was once out trawling with a fisherman off Saint Helens, when we dragged up a donkey-cart!”
“O-oh!” exclaimed Nellie, opening her blue eyes wide with wonder. “Did you catch the donkey as well?”
“Well, no,” answered the Captain, smiling at her amazement, her eyes being so big and her face such a study. “The poor man’s donkey, missy, had been eaten by the crabs, but the cart was there, shafts, wheels, and all; and, a nice mess the lot made of the trawl-net, tearing it all to pieces!”
“That clenches it then. I’ll come with you by all means!” cried Mr Dugald Strong, a pleased smile creeping over his face as he rubbed his hands with expectant glee. “If you find such strange fish as that, it must be worth going out.”
“All right, I shall be glad of your company,” replied the Captain; “only, mind, you’ll have to work your passage, and help hauling in the trawl.”