“You’ve brought something else along,” said Teddy, as his eyes fell on a big hook at the end of an iron chain. “I never saw this thing before. What are you going to do with it?”
“Hook a shark if I can,” was the answer.
“What!” came in an excited exclamation from the other three.
“That’s what I said,” repeated Lester, enjoying the sensation that his words had caused.
“Have you ever caught any before?”
“How do you do it?”
“Do you think we’ll catch sight of one?”
The questions poured in upon him and Lester laughed, as he raised his hand in protest.
“One thing at a time,” he answered. “Anybody’d think this was a political meeting where every one’s trying to heckle the speaker at once.
“I’ve caught them before,” he went on, replying to the first question that had been hurled at him. 113 “Not often, of course, because they’re not as common as other fish. But there are altogether too many on this part of the coast. They scare off the fish and break the nets of the fishermen. Then, too, they’re dangerous if any one falls overboard, and no one can be comfortable when he knows those pirates are cruising around, ready to gobble him up.”