"Luck! Four-pounder!"
"All right!" came faintly back over the water. "It's all you'll get."
"Guess not," grumbled Pickering. "But I wish I knew if they had anything from the Goshawk in their boat. There was another lot of chaps there, just like 'em."
"We can't help it if they have," said Kroom. "Do you know, they're not a bad kind of chap. Honest as the day on shore. Wouldn't cheat you in the weight of a fish. It was just so with the Cornish wreckers that plundered me once."
"Never was wrecked in my life," replied Pickering. "This Goshawk business wasn't mine. I wasn't in charge of the ship. It doesn't count."
"Well," said Kroom, "I wasn't ever wrecked after I got to be Captain. Most of mine came younger. I went to sea when I was a little feller. What I hate around a wreck is sharks."
If he was just about to tell a shark story, his chance for it was spoiled. He had a line of his own out now, and the next instant he exclaimed:
"Pete! Pickering! Take care of the boat while I get him in. 'Tisn't any blue-fish this time!"
The Elephant yawed and leaned over dangerously before Captain Pickering could get to the tiller, but Pete let the sail swing out like a tiptop young boatman.
"Just in time!" he said. "Sam, the Captain's got a big one!"