The boys gathered around the "cages" and examined them.
"See, this hole grows small at the back of it, and the lobster is so anxious to get the bait inside that he squeezes through; but after he is in he doesn't know how to double his claws back and get out, so he just don't; he stays."
"And you catch him?"
"He catches himself," laughed John.
"All we do is to set the pot,--that is, we bait it,--and then we anchor it off somewhere, and after a while we go back for it and get the lobsters."
"How do you get them out?"
"See these little doors up above? We open them, and reach in there."
"Don't they bite?" asked Dan.
"If you don't know where to catch 'em they nip, I tell you."
"Of course you swim like fish, both of you," said Joe, who was quite a famous swimmer himself.