“Can’t move—got my arms tied down at my sides. Ouch! it hurts, for the line is cutting into the bone of my wrists. Come and help me before it’s too late. You’ll be sorry if I get drowned. Then you’ll never learn the truth of how our secrets leaked. I’m the only one who is on the track. Hurry up, boys; I mean it!”
Jack saw that after all the situation was more desperate than might have appeared at first sight. It must be an enormous fish, the grandfather of all the muskies around the Thousand Islands, and powerful enough to drown poor Nick, if once it succeeded in upsetting the boat, or dragging him out of it.
Accordingly he immediately jumped over, and unfastened the cable that held his anchor.
“Hold that for me, will you, Herb?” he said, tossing one end of the rope over to the skipper of the Comfort.
Then without any further delay he started his engine with one energetic fling of the wheel.
Immediately the boat started, amid a rattling fusillade of sharp reports that told how responsive the well equipped motor was to the demands of its master.
Of course, once Jack fairly started after the little dinky that was being so vigorously towed by the captive fish, he had no difficulty in overtaking it.
“Now keep a firm hold on your seat, Buster,” he said. “I’m going to push in ahead of you, and see if I can fasten on to that line myself. The big thing can’t well pull both boats. After that I’ll free your arms. I want you to pull him in by yourself, if possible.”
“Not me!” cried Buster. “I’m done with the brute. Shoot him dead. Hit him with a club. He’s a villain, a desperate villain, because he wound me up like this, and then tried his level best to yank me over. Jack, bless you, I believe you’ve saved me from a watery grave. Have you got him now? Are you real certain he can’t jump into my little boat and take a chunk out of my leg? Oh, my! what a puller! I was sure going a mile a minute that time. Talk about Neptune and his sea horses, they can’t ever come up to a pesky muskalunge that feels the barb of the hook. I’m all tired out, Jack. You finish him, please.”
Jack saw that this was so; and having untangled the line from Nick’s body, he took the rod and proceeded to get in touch with the now sulking monster.