Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/59

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THE BLACKFISH INTERRUPTS
41

exactly what to say; and Garth resumed presently:

"Once a big square-rigged ship came in. Fogger woke me up at dawn to see her, because I'd never seen one. She came in close, and we saw the men leaning over the taffrail, and they hailed us, and we shouted back, and her sails went boom—boom as she came by. She was so high that we had to look up and up at her from the window. And then she was gone. I've never seen another."

He did not add that he had wept bitterly in his father's arms because he could not go with her.

"I'd like to see her again," he murmured; "she was the beautifullest of all. Joan!" he shouted suddenly. "You've got a hugeiferous bite! Pull!"

Joan, rather bewildered, began to draw in the line.

"You're not pulling nearly fast enough," said Garth, flinging himself face down across her lap and tugging at the line below her hands; "he'll get away! He must be a perfick whale! Help me, Joan. Be ready to pounce on him when we get him out!"

The line sang and spattered through the