“I can hardly wait till they arrive,” said Tom impatiently. “I wish I had something to occupy my time to keep my mind off the waiting.”
“Try fishing,” suggested Carter.
Both boys broke into a laugh.
“I guess we’ve had enough fishing to last us a hundred years,” declared Tom.
“I wouldn’t go as far as that,” rejoined Jack; “but I guess we’ve had a sufficiency for a while. As the Dutchman said, ’Too much is enough.’”
“I had a great experience out here with a big fish,” said the lightkeeper.
The boys saw at once that a story was coming, and as it would help pass the time they settled back to listen. They were sitting in deck chairs just within the shadow of the little hut.
“What was it?” asked Jack.
“I don’t know that it will interest you, but it will pass the time anyhow,” said Carter, “so here goes:
“Well, I was fishing off that wharf, the one you just landed at, when I saw the biggest barracuda I had ever seen. He was all of eight feet long—the dictionary tells of ’em being twelve—thick as a telegraph pole and as steely looking as a big torpedo.