“It has swallowed the end of the line, and, I suppose, whatever was fast on the cord,” he said. “If it was Flossie’s doll, that is now inside the fish.”
“And can you get it out?” asked Bert.
“Oh, yes, when we cut the fish open to clean it ready to cook, we can get the doll.”
“Is that fish good to eat?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Very good indeed. It’s one of our best kind,” the captain said. “Freddie is a better fisherman than he knew.”
And the little Bobbsey twin had really caught a fish. Just why it was the fish had bit on the line baited with Flossie’s rubber doll, no one knew. But Captain Crane said that sometimes the fish get so hungry they will almost bite on a bare hook, and are caught that way.
This fish of Freddie’s was so large that it had swallowed the doll, which was tied fast on the end of the line, and once the doll was in its stomach the fish could not get loose from the heavy cord.
“But you mustn’t take Flossie’s doll for fish-bait again,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
“No’m, I won’t!” Freddie promised. “But now maybe I can have a real hook and bait.”
“Well, we’ll see about that,” said Mr. Bobbsey with a smile.